Ting Yen May was born in Taiwan during the Japanese Occupation. At age eleven, she was sent to Tokyo for schooling. She overcame her language deficiencies and successfully completed Japanese high school and became the first Taiwanese to graduate from Ochanomizu University. She learned Mandarin Chinese after the end of WWII and the end of the Japanese Occupation. In her late fifties, she taught Japanese at Tatung College of Technology, and wrote several Japanese language textbooks. She began writing Japanese poetry ("tanka") in her sixties after reconnecting with her high school mentor/teacher...
Ting Yen May was born in Taiwan during the Japanese Occupation. At age eleven, she was sent to Tokyo for schooling. She overcame her language deficien...
There is a world beyond the blue sky we only catch glimpses of behind the white clouds high above us. Yet this is a world we cannot and should not ever see too clearly. Drawn from the five different "realms" of the sea, the middle country, the underworld, the forests and the country of old, Noriko Tanakas third collection, From the Middle Country, is born of that human longing to somehow explore this unknowable space. We stand with Noriko in the Middle Country of our contemporary uncertain reality ever aware of the womb of the sea, of the underworld of the dead, of the protection offered by...
There is a world beyond the blue sky we only catch glimpses of behind the white clouds high above us. Yet this is a world we cannot and should not eve...
This collection of linked tanka between two Australian and two American poets reminds us how exciting it is to colour outside the lines. Unexpected responses enliven the series as poets from different hemispheres move through the four seasons. For example, Fielden's final lines in 'Hope Springs Eternal', 'to swim without a wet suit / weightless meditation', is countered with Whitman's startling 'a gap opens...rip tide/time to renew marriage vows'. In 'Sunlight Between Dark Pools', Jacobson's charming 'Bogong moth/fluttering on the floor/beside me... / we move together / when the music...
This collection of linked tanka between two Australian and two American poets reminds us how exciting it is to colour outside the lines. Unexpected...
'Poems to Wear is a wonderful collection – brilliantly conceived, beautifully written. The editors and translators do the rarest of things: they bring the whole world of dress, fashion and its accessories to life. Part I contains haiku and tanka by modern and contemporary Japanese poets and Part II contains haiku and tanka by Australian poets. The poets are at their imaginative best as they build on their topics. It is accessible poetry, using variety and humour on the subject of clothing from both the Japanese and Western traditions. These tanka build an adventure...
'Poems to Wear is a wonderful collection – brilliantly conceived, beautifully written. The editors and translators do the rarest...
