“Dear Future Me” is a series in which Shohei Koyama—poet and owner of JIYUCHO — delivers poetic words in Japanese and English, like letters to his future self that trace the subtleties of everyday life. I hope this becomes a place like your mailbox where postcard poems arrive.

Daily

Daily

A shelf once lined with toys in an old Tokyo neighborhood
a voting box from an election long ago in America
a lightbulb bought in Osaka
a work desk that has always been here

Today they all bask in the sun of the twenty-first century
I watch them though I have not even lived half a century
Visitors come
our eyes meet
we smile at a moment that will never come again


About this piece

What did you think or feel after writing and reading this poem?

This day that will never come again.

If this poem were turned into a song, what would it sound like?

Maybe it’s a folk song.

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A letter that you can send to yourself one year from now, a regular mail that looks back on the month and summarizes it in one volume, a monthly collection of essays, etc. Products that color the time you spend facing yourself. You can enjoy it at home. Feel free to try it, by all means.