As our final post in the series of Honorable Mentions from this year’s Kyoto Writing Competition, the judges present kintsugi, a poem by writer and artist Annette* Akkerman of Maarssen, Netherlands. A chemist by education, Annette* works in the coffee and tea industry. She likes travelling, hiking, spending time in nature, and painting, and has won prizes for her short stories, poetry, and haiku (many of which were written while strolling through her beloved Kyoto). Japan remains one of her top world destinations. Her website (in Dutch) includes a list of publications her work has appeared in, as well as a list of awards she has received and a gallery of her paintings.

A complete list of results for the Seventh Annual Kyoto Writing Competition can be found here.

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kintsugi

while we slept
we ran into cracks
our white bodies dressed alone
in down hair and clean bed sheets

white paint was peeling off the wall
above our bed
my skin wrinkled

your fingers followed the grooves
they tried to grope for what
there was still alive

in Kyoto someone taught me
how to seal cracks
paste shards with gold
never invisible
rather flashy
so that the fractions can be counted

and we learn to appreciate
that our defencelessness
makes us fragile