After Watching The Japanese Film Norwegian Wood: Naoko And Watanabe, Among Other Ghosts, Walk On The Water With The Living Poem by Dennis Ryan

Monday afternoon, January 1, 2024, New Year's Day at 4: 10 p.m. at Lake Johnson Park, Raleigh, North Carolina; Tuesday morning, January 2, 2024, begin at 7: 42 a.m. and completed at 8: 12 a.m.; Wednesday morning, January 3, 2024 at 8: 14 a.m.

'Se siente, se siente, Che esta presente …'
—a sentiment still echoed throughout much of Argentina and the rest of the Spanish-speaking American nations

I sense Naoko's and Watanabe's physical presence
on the far side of the lake, over there near the timberline—
what feels miles away—though they are mere figments
of a Japanese novelist's imagination …. nevertheless,
I do feel them there, they are real enough to me, ghostly
figures who walk on the water with the living and the dead—
the lake water brown and muddied from recent rains—
my mind always traveling to and dwelling in at least two-
to-three countries simultaneously, inhabiting certain places
and regions while readily recognizing others—like Ishikawa,
yesterday's 7.5 earthquake there—watching these ghosts
parade across my mind's perturbed waters, the long-living,
the not so long, the dead, and these unforgettable imaginaries.