Here is a Free Verse Poem that I composed in 2002 about life in Okinawa. I hope you enjoy this tribute to the Ryukyus.

RYUKYU IS MY ABODE

Shark toothed splendor,
Aqua-blue calm deep,
Surrounds this archipelago
Of praying mantis form.

Shallows laden with cucumber,
Black and undulating,
Coral rich, but dirt poor
With foul stench rising.

Sanshin softly plays,
Splitting the dense air.
Uchinanchu (oo-chin-nan-chew)jabber native tongue
To compliment the instrument.

I drift upon the music,
Like a willow leaf upon a breeze.
Yet the local speak breaks the spell,
And sends me hurtling to the ground.
My senses reel from overdose,
The Reeking, the Pleasure discombobulates.

Is this Paradise, Or some kind of sweltering Hell?
Contradiction is my home,
I live in the chasm of East and West,
In subtropical ways of hazy days and clammy nights,
Ryukyu is my abode.