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Editorial: October 2007

September 28, 2007
Japan is not just a country in transition, its reality is in transit as well. Japanese editor, Yasuhiro Yotsumoto concurs with Kiji Kutani’s presentation of what he describes as an “emerging reality in which things that were once solid and meaningful are melting down”. To demonstrate, he quotes the poem, ‘Coquettish Glances’: “the moment the train pulled into Koiwa, /she turned soundlessly into a translucent morsel /and came sliding towards my feet /at a snail’s pace.” Checking recent news articles about Japan I do, of course, find examples of a strange reality – the launch of a super-milk for stressed adults at $49 a can, a governor who describes his city as looking like vomit, air-powered leaping robots, high tech terrorism – but this is perhaps an example of the western press’s avidity for stereotype-confirming stories. Still, poems that seems to me to be surreal, mysterious and other-worldly, turns out to be a form of realism for compatriots, a fact that helps me understand them better.
I’m turning half alien:
to my eyes now,
even the night sky out the window
is as dazzling
as the midwinter sun.
   (‘Alien Night’).

There’s something intrinsically cool, noir, cultish about Kiji Kutani’s poetry and however you look at it, it does conjure up the flavour of modern Japan. We also feature the poet reading out his poems – I urge you to listen to these wonderful, atmospheric recordings even if you don’t speak Japanese.

Estonian Jürgen Rooste and Dane Morten Søndergaard, both participants of this summer’s Poetry International Festival are also purveyors of strange realities. In Sondergaard’s hilarious untitled poem he catalogues a string of odd behaviours : “more and more Danes drive round the country at night, experimenting on cows’ eyes/more and more Danes enjoy moving very, very slowly when they are alone” - and somehow you’re almost tempted to believe him. Sondergaard also experiments with sound and phonetics so again, do listen to the audio versions. Jürgen Rooste who flirts with free style and punk is another extremely entertaining young poet. “Is someone out there/some marvellous amateur?” he asks with existential wit, or there he is longing for romantic trancendence, his heart as “free as an onion”. We are still looking for editors and support for the Estonian and Danish sites, so if you can help us please do come forward.

Zimbabwe this month features Cosmas Mairosi, a young man whose documentary-style poetry is political, set on sharing the disappointments of post-Independence Zimbabwe. Contemporary life in Zimbabwe can bear no clever subversions, the reality is straight foward:

mother, what happened to the breadbasket of Africa?
sister, what happened to Africa’s paradise?
brother, what happened to the sunshine city
and that of Kings?
   (‘We are here’)

In Colombia, Yanakunan  Fredy Chicangana , writing from “this nook that seems like the last in the universe” (‘Footprints’) sends out a strong message for ecological awareness. His poetry is earthy, mythological and he describes the threatened indigenous ways of life and beliefs that are in tune with nature. Gustavo Adolfo Garcés’s poetry is atypical in that it is influenced by the conciseness of Asiatic forms rather than European classicism. Nicolás Suescún aptly writes that “Garcés’ poems are like tiny doors which open to wide avenues; they have incredible powers of suggestion.” He describes the works as ‘micro-poems’ which turn out to be “small miracles of macro-understanding”. I find them very beautiful:

There are nights
in which one discovers
the stairs
the door
and the lock

but the room
remains secret
   (‘Invisible Stars’)

The final poet in this issue is  Robinson Quintero who performs clever inversions. In ‘A Man Walking Around His Home’ a stone kicked along the road becomes god, becomes poetry and vice versa – poetry, creation is the act of kicking the stone.

Until next month,
© Michele Hutchison
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