From a Three-Cornered World: New and Selected Poems

by Mitsui, James Masao

• ISBN13: 9780295975986
• ISBN10: 0295975989
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780295802671
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of Washington Pr
• More Book Details

Summary

'Mitsui's poems are memorable, finely honed--combining imagistically startling vignettes, witty and melancholy ars poetica, and moving personal reminiscence. Yet the many poetic memorials to Japanese American history are this poet's finest accomplishment.'--Garret Hongo

Table of Contents

SELECTED POEMS
I from Journal of the Sun 1974	3	(16)
Destination: Tule Lake Relocation Center	3	(2)
Photograph of a Child	5	(1)
Picture of a Japanese Farmer	6	(1)
Section Hand, Great Northern Railway	7	(2)
The Morning My Father Died	9	(1)
Watching Bon Odori	10	(2)
Because It Is Close and My Mother Is 72	12	(1)
Shrike on Dead Tree	13	(1)
Ohashi in a Shower	14	(1)
Painting of a Hermitage	15	(1)
Nisei: Second-Generation Japanese American	16	(3)
II from Crossing the Plantom River 1978	19	(22)
Allowance	19	(1)
When Father Came Home for Lunch	20	(1)
Katori Maru	21	(2)
Holding Center, Tanforan Race Track	23	(1)
Block 18, Tule Lake Relocation Camp	24	(2)
The Table Lamp	26	(2)
Samurai	28	(1)
Surrounded by Autumn	29	(1)
Waterfall at Dusk	30	(1)
Exhibition	31	(1)
Painting by a Mental Patient	32	(2)
Cape Alava	34	(1)
For a Chinese Pheasant	35	(1)
New Lines for Fortune Cookies	36	(1)
For the Ballerina in Death Valley Junction	37	(4)
III from After the Long Train 1986	41	(16)
Shakuhachi	41	(1)
The East Watch House	42	(1)
Minoru Mitsui	43	(1)
Because of My Father's Job	44	(2)
Wooden Flower Vase	46	(1)
Visiting My Mother at Kawabe House	47	(2)
After a Stranger Calls	49	(2)
Letter to Tina Koyama	51	(2)
In Sight of Purple Crocus	53	(4)
NEW POEMS
IV Flexing Our Rippling Metaphors	57	(16)
English Teachers	57	(1)
What the Math Teacher Told Jim	58	(1)
Isla Mujeres: My American Sonnet, 1986	59	(1)
Letter to Ransom from Green Lake	60	(2)
The World of Becomming	62	(1)
Closure	63	(2)
In Front of the Geoduck Display	65	(1)
Paris Windows: Some Linked Bantu	66	(1)
Because You Left Three Rocks	67	(1)
Graffiti in a University Restroom	68	(1)
Rationale	69	(4)
V Cleveland Was Farther Away Than July	73	(14)
You are Beautiful	73	(1)
Christmas Poem, 1987	74	(2)
Christmas Poem for Lilly	76	(1)
Southwest of Stovepipe Wells	77	(2)
Tohono O'Odham Indian Cemetery	79	(1)
A Birthday Poem for Lilly	80	(1)
Ode to My'94 Honda Passport	81	(2)
From a Window of Lowell's Cafe	83	(4)
VI Painting Sunlight on the Wooden Wall of a House	87	(10)
Getting Ready for Grandparenthood	87	(1)
My Mother Juggling Bean Bags	88	(2)
Wedding Poem for Janet & Drew	90	(1)
At the Tom Mix Memorial	91	(2)
Mitsui in English Means "Three Wells"	93	(1)
Spring Poem for the Sake of Breathing	94	(3)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS	97