“Poésie” is the genesis of Takashi Kako's musical ideas and a foundational work that marked the starting point for establishing his musical style. Released in 1985, this piece garnered significant attention when it was used in a television commercial.

Takashi Kako, who graduated from the Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School in 1971, entered the composition department of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris (Paris National Superior Conservatory of Music) and studied under Olivier Messiaen. In 1973, he debuted as a free jazz pianist. From the 1990s, he began composing music for numerous films and TV dramas, with his theme song for NHK's “The 20th Century in Moving Images,” “Is Paris Burning?”, receiving particular acclaim.

According to Kako, “Poésie” was composed based on the English folk song “Greensleeves,” following a critic's advice to take up a melody familiar to everyone. The simple yet appealing melody of the folk song, combined with Kako's unique “Kako-bushi” (Kako's distinctive style), resulted in a rewarding piano piece to perform.

In the middle section, the left hand carries sixteenth notes, while the right hand sings the melody expansively, combining whole notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes, and dotted notes. In the composer's mind, there was “a poetic scene of nature, such as mist slowly drifting through green trees in a forest on the wind, or the flow of a beautiful river.” The wind sways in the appoggiaturas, and the river flows ceaselessly in the sixteenth notes. Even dissonances formed by stacked major seconds resonate pleasantly within the depths of the forest.