tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593764226213882767.post3247612409502416215..comments2024-02-22T15:48:50.427-08:00Comments on Poems and Poetics: Brandon Shimoda: from O BON, a note & a poemJerome Rothenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14166931849293504537noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593764226213882767.post-9628034193203949282012-02-13T17:15:53.820-08:002012-02-13T17:15:53.820-08:00Unlike the disguised linearity of so many post-lan...Unlike the disguised linearity of so many post-language poets, Shimoda offers no consolations of form, only the rawest of feelings rendered with the most delicate means, as a painter arranges elements that would wound otherwise for being wrong. Unlike virtually every other poet I’ve read, one can’t complete his thoughts before he does, or contemplate the plain of extremity from which his cadence ushers. We appreciate his explanation that this is an homage to his grandfather, grateful that there is at least this mooring even as it drifts further and inconsolably away. In this he reminds me of Paul Celan: “Iris, swimmer, dreamless and dim:/ the sky, heart-gray, must be near…//Did we not stand/under one tradewind?/We are strangers.)//The tiles. Upon them,/close together, the two/heart-gray pools:/two/mouthfuls of silence.”<br /><br />Thank you for sharing this important work. A longer excerpt of this piece can be found at <a href="http://www.typomag.com/issue10/shimoda.html" rel="nofollow">Typo Mag</a>.WAShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10403669322174979974noreply@blogger.com