Song of a Reformed Headhunter

My proposal has been accepted! I will be speaking about my hybrid creative and critical work-in-progress "Does grass sweat" at Oxford University, Rothermere American Institute, on May 19, for the symposium "Special Relationships: Poetry Across the Atlantic Since 2000." Abstract below. I've read parts of the work at Rutgers at the invitation of Patrick Rosal. So excited to read more of it at Oxford! Thanks for publishing parts of it, H.L. Hix, Bryan Borland, Vivek Narayanan, Eric Thomas Norris, Cindy Arrieu-King, Ryan Wilson, Bry Hos, Cy Rai, Haikuist Network, Rattle, Gulf Coast, Hayden's Ferry, Dusie, Almost Island, Queer Southeast Asia, From Walden to Woodlands, Alba, Assaracus, Literary Matters, Kin, Ten Thirty, The Capilano Review. Abstract: Complication as a Form of Explication  by Jee Leong Koh My work-in-progress "Does grass sweat: translations of an insignificant Japanese poet" deploys the tropes of literary translation and critical co...

The round clock above the pump house ducks sleeping That's it, folks. The last one. Thanks for following and liking the haiku. We move to Harlem today.

End of January the moon behind clouds cheese sandwich

High winds the reservoir gathers a sea the night a black hut * Hanging from a nail in the wall of the study an Olympic gymnast * Two more. We move on Friday.

Last five haiku before we move away from Central Park: Number written on the FedEx door tag— a strong headwind

You can say anything in a haiku except fuck you

Moon in the morning my shoes are wet

Thinking of Basho and Thoreau on this last day of the year. At the heart of the American elm an old pond

December rain medical records in a small filing cabinet

December drizzle nothing beats eating an orange Saying good-bye with a chaste hug moon behind the cloud

Snow falling like rain tuk tuk speeding up Tonle Sap

Slowly on crutches the sound of an axe from the next valley

I've not been keeping up with the recording of my reading that I wish to remember. So here is a very partial accounting of the books read in the period from July to now: 1. Basho and His Interpreters: Selected Hokku with Commentary edited by Makoto Ueda -invaluable 2. Walden by Haiku by Ian Marshall -interesting project of extracting haiku from Thoreau's prose, but finally unconvincing 3.  Two-Timing Modernity: Homosocial Narrative in Modern Japanese Fiction by J. Keith Vincent -subtle and persuasive study of how the Japanese texts betray both the feudal past and the longed-for modernity. Insightful analysis of Natsume Soseki's Kokoro and its critical reception. 4. Kokoro by Natsume Soseki - a most subtle tripartite structure: like a haiku? 5. Botchan by Natsume Soseki -witty, a light work 6. State of War by Ninotchka Rosca -too much exposition but memorable characters. 7. After You by Cyril Wong -he does survival in different voices 8. Map: C...

Nut-brown squirrel quotation of the day cost quotation

Two last leaves we were awake and then we drifted off

JH's memorial was held last Saturday, November 12, at 150w83. PB managed to get through his speech without breaking down. It was a fine speech, loving, modest, and gently humorous. "Jin loved me but he also loved Anderson Cooper and Brazilian ballet dancer Thiago Soares." JH's mom spoke of JH's hospitalization in Fukuoka and PB's care for him in his last days. She too was puzzled by JH's sudden death and speculated that it was due to radiation as JH volunteered at the Fukushima prefecture in the last two or three years he visited Japan. In his speech JH's brother asked himself why JH moved to NYC, and thought it was because the city gave JH the freedom to be himself, freedom he could not find in Japan. He ended by asking us to keep NYC free, to which call many in the audience stood up and applauded. I could not help relating this to the election of Trump. The moment made a deep impression on me. I am committed to New York City and do not intend to leav...

A brown dog mounting a black dog an empty parking lot

After the flower pots the truck will return for the rolled-up fence

Sun in November nothing to ask for nothing to ask

Not the rain but after no false note