"An Onsen of Gibberish" poem

More about "An Onsen of Gibberish" poem

“Where gibberish flows, the spirit finds stillness.”
「ナンセンスが流れるとき、心が止まる。」

An Onsen of Gibberish

Steam curls in silent, sacred swirls,
Between the rocks and cedar curls.
The onsen waits with open grace,
Its warmth a breath, its heart a place.

But listen—hark! What’s this I hear?
Not silence, no—not quite so clear.
It babbles soft in bubbling sound,
In gibberish, the springs resound.

"Flim-flarn," it coos, "and numba-nu,"
As waters shift in twilight hue.
No mantra, chant, or word aligned—
Just syllables the world declined.

The bathers soak in nonsense steam,
Their thoughts dissolve, their pulses dream.
A monk half-smiles, his lips aglow,
Murmurs “blibber,” and lets go.

A fox-mask floats, the stars all blink,
A kettle pours what thoughts can't think.
The mountain listens, calm and slow,
To words that melt like falling snow.

So let me steep in sounds unmeant,
Where sense and stillness are unbent.
For in this bath of gibber’s grace,
I lose the world—and find my place.

In my opinion, this poem blends the Japanese aesthetic ideals of yūgen (mysterious beauty) and ma (the pause or space) with a playful surrealism. The gibberish becomes a purifying force, cleansing not just the body but the burden of needing to make sense.