I felt a longing to compose a radical or root poem that would speak to what has its back turned to me.
What you feel in Japanese poetry is always entirely longing.
The lead either forges an instant connection with the reader, or the package fails.
Grief is the doorway to a man's feelings.
... where a man's wound is, that is where his genius will be.
Myth and poetry represent a reservoir of vertical thinking, which we could also call longing and gratitude to ancestors. We need that gratitude desperately.