Writing Poetry in Public Places, Cafes, Bars, etc.
Alone in a place full of strangers I sing as if I'm in the center of a heavenly choir —my tongue a cloud of honey— Sometimes I think I'm weird. Tokyo June 11, 1976
4 miesiące temu
The Nagara, the Yellowstone
Fish rise in the early summer evenings on the Nagara River at Gifu. I am back in Tokyo. I will never fish the Nagara. The fish will rise there forever but the Yellowstone River south of Livingston, Montana, that is another story. Tokyo…
4 miesiące temu
The American Carrying a Broken Clock in Tokyo Again
For Shiina Takako It is amazing how many people you meet when you are carrying a broken clock around in Tokyo. Today I was carrying the broken clock around again, trying to get an exact replacement for it. The clock was far beyond repair.…
4 miesiące temu
The American Fool
A few weeks ago a middle-aged taxi driver started talking to me in English. His English was very good. I asked him if he had ever been to America. Wordlessly, poignantly he made a motion with his hand that was not driving the streets of Tokyo…
4 miesiące temu
The American in Tokyo with a Broken Clock
For Shiina Takako People stare at me— There are millions of them. Why is this strange American walking the streets of early night carrying a broken clock in his hands? Is he for real or is he just an illusion? How the clock got broken is not important.…
4 miesiące temu
Eternal Lag
Before flying to Japan I was worried about jet lag. "My" airplane would leave San Francisco at 1 P.M. Wednesday and 10 hours and 45 minutes later would land in Tokyo at 4 P.M. the next day: Thursday.…
4 miesiące temu
Visiting a Friend at the Hospital
I just visited Kazuko at the hospital. She seemed tired. She was operated on six days ago. She ate her dinner slowly, painfully. It was sad to watch her eat. She was very tired. I wish that I could have eaten in her place and she to receive the nutriment.…
4 miesiące temu
Lazarus on the Bullet Train
For Tagawa Tadasu The Bullet Train is the famous Japanese express train that travels 120 miles an hour. Lazarus is an old stand-by. You listened to the ranting and raving drunken American writer on the Bullet Train from Nagoya as I blamed you for everything that ever went…
4 miesiące temu
Fragment #1
Speaking is speaking when you (The next word is unintelligible, written on a drunken scrap of paper.) speak any more. Tokyo Perhaps a day in early June
4 miesiące temu
After the Performance of the Black Tent Theater Group on the Shores of the Nagara River
The actresses without their makeup, their costumes, their roles are returned to being mortals. I watch them eat quietly in a small inn. They have no illusions, almost plain like saints perfect in their re-entry. Gifu…
4 miesiące temu
Traveling toward Osaka on the Freeway from Tokyo
I look out the car window at 100 kilometers an hour (62 miles) and see a man peddling a bicycle very carefully down a narrow path between rice paddies. He's gone in a few seconds. I have only his memory now. He has been changed into a 100 kilometer-an-hour…
4 miesiące temu
Things to Do on a Boring Tokyo Night in a Hotel
1. Have dinner by yourself. That's always a lot of fun. 2. Wander aimlessly around the hotel. This is a huge hotel, so there's lots of space to wander aimlessly around.…
4 miesiące temu
Worms
The distances of loneliness make the fourth dimension seem like three hungry crows looking at a worm in a famine. Tokyo June 6, 1976
4 miesiące temu
Ego Orgy on a Rainy Night in Tokyo with Nobody to Make Love to
The night is now half-gone; youth goes: I am in bed alone —Sappho…
4 miesiące temu
American Bar in Tokyo
I'm here in a bar filled with young conservative snobbish American men, drinking and trying to pick up Japanese women who want to sleep with the likes of these men. It is very hard to find any poetry here as this poem bears witness. Tokyo…
4 miesiące temu
A Small Boat on the Voyage of Archaeology
A warm thunder and lightning storm tonight in Tokyo with lots of rain and umbrellas around 10 P.M. This is a small detail right now but it could be very important a million years from now when archaeologists sift through our ruins, trying to figure us out.…
4 miesiące temu
A Young Japanese Woman Playing a Grand Piano in an Expensive and Very Fancy Cocktail Lounge
Everything shines like black jade: The piano (invented Her long hair (severe Her obvious disinterest (in the music she is playing. Her mind, distant from her fingers, is a million miles away shining…
4 miesiące temu
On the Elevator Going Down
A Caucasian gets on at the 17th floor. He is old, fat, and expensively dressed. I say hello / I'm friendly. He says, "Hi." Then he looks very carefully at my clothes.…
4 miesiące temu
Japan Minus Frogs
For Guy de la Valdène Looking casually through my English-Japanese dictionary I can't find the word frog. It's not there. Does that mean that Japan has no frogs? Tokyo June 4, 1976
4 miesiące temu
The Alps
One word waiting . . . leads to an avalanche of other words if you are waiting . . . for a woman Tokyo June 2, 1976
4 miesiące temu