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

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When did you write it, and under what circumstances?

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

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“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.

You can read the previous series
“This Morning’s Drawing” here→

Nora

2025-09-25

I wake in downtown Tokyo

pour barley tea

sit down still with my wild bed hair

It feels as if right here right now is all that exists

Morning comes to me at last

and the fast-forwarding present slips into just now into that moment

I think I glimpsed a stray cat somewhere

noon turns to dusk and weariness shows on the face

Changing trains passing through the shadows of towers

to see a jazz singer born and raised in a faraway metropolis

beyond the Pacific across the continent’s edge

Her singing reaches me as gently as the piano

the drums the bass

as if she were reading aloud a letter

I understand

I look around and everyone seems the same

quiet as though we have vanished from Tokyo

melted between the shadows of buildings

or fallen between now and just now just now and that moment

hidden from all yet here

The stray cat I must have seen there

Don't know why

but I know it is true

What is the name of this feeling

what lies between now and just now

The applause fades

I slip between the buildings

and fall asleep in downtown Tokyo

About this piece

What did you think or feel after writing and reading this poem?: I realize this is something I couldn’t have written a little while ago.
When did you write it, and under what circumstances?: It's amazing how words and poetry just come out naturally when you're faced with great music. It makes me happy, but also makes me feel annoyed.
If this poem were turned into a song, what would it sound like?: Don't know why

About JIYUCHO owner Koyama

Began writing poetry as a student. Deeply moved by Shuntaro Tanikawa’s Two Billion Light-Years of Solitude, where physical laws were expressed in beautiful words. While wandering the world, continued writing poetry and founded a company at the age of 27. In May 2018, released TOMOSHIBI POST, a web service that allows people to send letters to their future selves. In August 2019, opened JIYUCHO in Kuramae, Tokyo. In December 2023, opened FUTO, a poetic café and second location. In August 2024, published the poetry collection The World at Last, with You and Me. Graduated from the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Tokyo University of Science. Studied abroad in Seattle, Washington, USA, for one year during university.

Links of the owner Koyama