“Love Letter to Masako”

“Love Letter to Masako”

You are like candy in my mouth.

The sweet breath of Spring

is in your mouth.

From earthly shell to earthly shell,

what lies between such earthly bed.

Is it the moon, the stars?

Is it one’s favorite dream?

Is it heaven

right in our hearts?

From earthly shell to earthly shell,

what lives, what breathes?

Is it eternal?

Is love eternal?

The sweet cry of youth…

Is it for this that man is born?

Then stay; wander not.

Heaven’s bliss I fain would pluck.

Wait, don’t go.

Come back and stay.

Lie with me in my earthly bed.

Eternity can wind its way.

The heavens may burst and

Hell let loose.

But I, in my enchantment rest

and sleep contented,

till time, too, rests.

Elmer Tazuma of Seattle (whose parents owned Tazuma Ten-Cent Store at 12^th Avenue and Jackson Street before World War II) authored this poem to his wife in 1949. The first stanza was used in Northwest Prime Time’s February/March 2010 Poetry Corner.

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