Nichiren, Izu Exile (1261)

Jogasaki

—lava fan of Ōmuroyama!

4,000 years of rain and wind,

wave salt and sun

to make towering Kesakake Pines,

knotted Wax Myrtle

and musk of fern and litter

of old, old wild cherries blooming

deep polished cleaves

of black stone spilling fresh streams

into cheek pink blush 

of barnacles in blue clean 

wash of shallows 

Futo town didn't spring up

but more flowed down

with lava spill around the older

Harai volcano

For decades fishermen in huts

on pumice cliffs

spotting Mullet schools,

flag waved signals

for boatmen to herd the fish to shoal

walking across land

that spread out like a wave

Jogasaki--

exiled monk

cast on wave torn jut

of cooled basalt prisms

a volcano offers more than molten earth

a love that smells of sea water