CHEERFUL NOISE as in a poem

Today's poem FACE THE STRAIN by Joolz Sparkes published by AGAINST THE GRAIN POETRY PRESS (ISBN: 978-1-73-916840-7)     £6.00 This pamphlet FACE THE STRAIN is written by the Londoner poet Joolz Sparkes, born and raised in the UK. As in the poetry book London Undercurrents (written with Hilaire), the verse stage in the pamphlet is set in London with love and hate. The title serves as a metaphor for Sparkes’s daily life there as a working woman. I, as a freelance translator, can strongly sympathize with her works and feel keenly what she is fighting in society. The collection covers various forms, i.e., formal poem (‘We’re trying to stop, honest’ with rich cacophony) to concrete poem (‘No title’ with irony). Through it, the current social issues such as diversity and gender are expressed with her own lyricism. From that perspective, it includes works that could be described as political, reiterated as in the previous book. What is most impressive for me is ‘O World, who shall we be

Today's poem THE WORK OF A WINTER by Maureen Boyle This collection is different from most of what I have recently read so far. Different from works by immigrants. In this sense, the book is dissimilar to those for me. The main stage is Belfast, broadly, Northern Ireland. Garden and winter are keywords throughout the collection. From poem to poem, her religious feelings and sensitivity are embedded in various forms. Further, in gardens, winter means a kind of death, waiting for seasonal change, i.e., spring as rebirth. The opening verse is a sequence of poems in memoriam of her father. The first poem in the sequence Latin-entitled ‘INCUNABULA’ implies the beginning and end of his life. The poems are portrayals of Northern Ireland’s history and her daily life, nature, and religion. From ‘INCUNABULA’, one of poems that stood out for me was ‘VII’ showing summer pleasure in her childhood where Enid Blyton was picked up. Enid's works have been popular in Japan, therefore it’s famili

Today's poem I didn’t know such a history in Great Britain - the history of the Romani people. I knew and met only the Romani people who lived in Spain, Portugal, and Hungary. Some of them were great musicians, e.g., Django Reinhardt. And although completely forgot it, there is a book The Traveller-Gypsies  by Judith Okely on my family’s bookshelf and I recall I read it a long time ago when I met them in Europe. After that, a poetry collection FURY by David Morley was presented to me two years ago. His collection contains poems on the Romani people. https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9781784109905 Now Sanka (サンカ) people as wanderers in Japan come up in my mind. Unfortunately, they could be no longer living. Even now it is shadow of Japan's history.   https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B5%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AB Here, I would like to introduce the poet Raine Geoghegan’s poem 'Under a Gooseberry Bush'. When I joined a poetry workshop in the UK, a British poet

Today's poem Second encounter with poems by Layli Long Soldier. First, in Nina Mingya Powles’ online workshop. This time, Carrie Etter’s session in the early morning today. After finishing her session, I promptly purchased Layli Long Soldier’s collection Whereas via Kindle. Such a book title Whereas I have never met, only seen in agreements, i.e., legal documents. I first thought that the title was non-poetic, but I agreed with it when I read the Part II in the collection. Soldier’s poem Edge stroke me so much. I could see passing sceneries during the drives. Mother called Mommy might be Soldier herself in the poem and her small kid might be in her car. They saw scenes flowing from her car and chatted to each other. Mommy could not accurately hear the kid’s chit-chat. In the poem, unique effects of punctuation are exhibited, e.g., enumeration of words. That is transition of scenes and sound frame by frame; sometimes not to catch words or sometimes to catch words like hallucinatio

Today's poem My first recording and uploading of reading the poem Earth Anthem by poet Abhay K to celebrate the 52nd Anniversary of Earth Day in 2022 . https://www.earthanthem.net/p/earth-anthem-by-abhay-k.html?m=1

Today's poem One of my curiosities is mysticism. So I am lucky to find the poem ‘Dance Mania’ by Jonathan Aaron on my bookshelf. The free verse has a clarified narrative structure: a series of religious anecdotes in chronological order and famous stories following the achievements of the German physician and alchemist Paracelsus. I enjoy the former part describing apocryphal tales in 1027, 1227, and 1278 with wit (especially, the first tale in 1027 is funny). The latter part mainly relates to Paracelsus. I am quietly inspired by the conclusion starting from the line “Think of the strange, magnetic sleep” as a turn, conveying poetic syntax. E ven if Paracelsus’ work might include an uncertain, dubious part, everything is connected as one showing human history. The dance mania as the title is a clue for reading the poem. I read it and imagine both whirling dervish and dance with Buddhist chants of Jishū (時宗). Beyond eras and religions, the conclusion leads me to a sort of a universal

Today's poem An independent bookshop POPOTAME (ポポタム http://popotame.net/  ) is awfully cute with a unique collection of books and zines with a little quirkiness. Yesterday I visited the bookshop at Mejiro, Toshima (near my childhood home!), then came across a South Korean charming zine entitled Gonggi . I was mesmerized by the elaborately crafted zine. Gonggi is a traditional Korean kid's game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAFS4AzBgzI The zine shows various playing scenes thereof with green and gold foil stamping on tea-green paper. Gonggi published by ADD TO CART, illustration & Design by 0.1, the object (South Korea) https://popotame.com/items/5fd9fb7bf0b1084bef91780c The bookshop has space for selling books and a gallery. Yesterday there was an exhibition of acrylic paintings by the painter MISSISSIPPI (  https://mississippi.mystrikingly.com/ ). Indeed, his actual paintings had power to move me. Some works were sold out (i.e., with red circle marks!). After seeing