Excerpt from absence on water

   i listen
for you
in the silence
that begs
for a sound
i see you
in the water
that ripples
in the distance
made present
by the
great
absence
that lingers
above

Copyright 2026 Michael Grodesky

In my collection Absence On Water, one of the sources of inspiration came from the work of the Japanese composer of contemporary and classical music, Toru Takemitsu. I was introduced to Takemitsu’s work and his book, Confronting Silence by my teacher Ronald Bucknam who often professed one of the composer’s fundamental dialectics: that absence creates presence. Read more about Toru Takemitsu at the link below:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tōru_Takemitsu

Another source of inspiration came from the images of Busan-based photographer Jungwon Park. He is globally recognized for his minimalist, black-and-white long-exposure seascapes and landscapes. I find that his minimalist scapes invoke an interesting tension between what is present and what is absent. I was inspired to create that same experience in the poems of this collection. I imagined the poems looking visually similar to the linear forms in his photographs. See Park’s photographs at his website below:

http://jungwonpark.net/?ckattempt=1

The cover photo for Absence On Water was one I took myself with morning fog overlooking Mutiny Bay on Whidbey Island in Washington state, near Seattle.