Day556【The Shortest Way】

A daily monochrome photo-poetry series by naozo. Since 2025, each work pairs a moment from everyday life with a poem from NZ, the artist's future self. Through glass, light, and silence, the series turns self-doubt into dialogue.

NZPHOTOGRAPH & naozo

Day556【The Shortest Way】

DEAR naozo,

Will you hurry

That is what

I would ask

People

Wish to arrive quickly

Seek results quickly

Prove themselves quickly

And so

They avoid detours

Avoid failure

Avoid uncertainty

Yet

Sometimes

I wonder

Whether what carries us

to our destination

Is not the shortest distance

But the detour

People

Get lost

Stop walking

Turn back

Make mistakes

Yet

Without those moments

There are landscapes

They would never have seen

People

They would never have met

And selves

They would never have known

People

Call detours wasteful

Yet

If they were truly wasted

Why

Are you standing here now

The painful days

The uncertain days

The days you almost gave up

Have not disappeared

All of them

Have shaped

Who you are today

I believe

The shortest way

Is not the shortest road

It is the path

Found only after

The necessary detours

People

Do not become deeper

By arriving sooner

They become deeper

By accepting the detours

So

Do not rush

Do not be ashamed

Of the longer road

Because it is the road

That made you

Who you are

Perhaps

The detour itself

Was the shortest way

For you

What do you think

from NZ

This story is a work of fiction. Except for the named individuals, all elements are products of imagination. The boundary between reality and fiction is intentionally ambiguous, and its interpretation is left to the reader.