LITMIR.BIZ

       From a Three-Cornered World

      NEW AND SELECTED POEMS

      James Masao Mitsui

      University of Washington Press Seattle and London

      This book is published with the assistance of a grant from the Scott and Laurie Oki Endowed Fund for the publication of Asian American Studies, established through the generosity of Scott and Laurie Oki.

      Copyright © 1997 by James Masao Mitsui

      Designed by Audrey Meyer

      Cover designed by Glen Mitsui, Studio MD, featuring a photograph of Minoru Mitsui

      Calligraphic brush strokes by Tad Wasa

      All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

      ISBN 0-295-97598-9 (pbk.)

      The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.

      This is for Lilly,

      forever in love.

      An artist is a person who lives in the triangle which remains after the angle which we may call common sense has been removed from this four-cornered world.—Natsume Soseki, 1867–1916

       Contents

       SELECTED POEMS

       I / from Journal of the Sun 1974

       Destination: Tule Lake Relocation Center

       Photograph of a Child

       Picture of a Japanese Farmer

       Section Hand, Great Northern Railway

       The Morning My Father Died

       Watching Bon Odori

       Because It Is Close and My Mother Is 72

       Shrike on Dead Tree

       Ōhashi in a Shower

       Painting of a Hermitage

       Nisei: Second-Generation Japanese American

       II / from Crossing the Phantom River 1978

       Allowance

       When Father Came Home for Lunch

       Katori Maru

       Holding Center, Tanforan Race Track

       Block 18, Tule Lake Relocation Camp

       The Table Lamp

       Samurai

       Surrounded by Autumn

       Waterfall at Dusk

       Exhibition

       Painting by a Mental Patient

       Cape Alava

       For a Chinese Pheasant

       New Lines for Fortune Cookies

       For the Ballerina in Death Valley Junction

       III / from After the Long Train 1986

       Shakuhachi

       The East Watch House

       Minoru Mitsui

       Because of My Father’s Job

       Wooden Flower Vase

       Visiting My Mother at Kawabe House

       After a Stranger Calls

       Letter to Tina Koyama

       In Sight of Purple Crocus

       NEW POEMS

       IV / Flexing Our Rippling Metaphors

       English Teachers

       What the Math Teacher Told Jim

       Isla Mujeres: My American Sonnet, 1986

       Letter to Ransom from Green Lake

       The World of Becoming

       Closure

       In Front of the Geoduck Display

       Paris Windows: Some Linked Bantu

       Because You Left Three Rocks

       Graffiti in a University Restroom

       Rationale

       V / Cleveland Was Farther Away Than July

       You are Beautiful

       Christmas Poem, 1987

       Christmas Poem for Lilly

       Southwest of Stovepipe Wells

       Tohono O’Odham Indian Cemetery

       A Birthday Poem for Lilly

       Ode to My ’94 Honda Passport

       From a Window of Lowell’s Cafe

       VI / Painting Sunlight on the Wooden Wall of a House

       Getting Ready for Grandparenthood

       My Mother Juggling Bean Bags

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