Come quickly -- as soon as these blossoms open, they fall. This world exists as a sheen of dew on flowers.
~ Izumi Shikibu (Japan, b 974?), thanks to Maureen Flannery
Suddenly I heard the sound; it was
the sacred whispers. The whispers
come to me from the land, the
sky and the sea, and often they
urge me to be still. Above all,
the whispers signal change.