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Singaporean Poet Heng Siok Tian — Is My Body A Myth
While in Singapore this past summer, I picked up a copy of Is My Body A Myth, a chapbook by Heng Siok Tian. I was eager to read some poetry from Singapore because, thanks to their bilingual education...
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The Quiet Haiku of Winter
It’s a cold night in Pittsburgh (8˚F/-13˚C), and I’ve been reading some winter haiku. I’ve always loved winter poems — there’s a stillness I enjoy, and perhaps crave. A few winter haiku and tanka...
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The Silence After Your Questions
“how old are the questions tonight” I’d never heard of Su Tung P’o* until I read a letter written to him by W. S. Merwin. Merwin penned the letter in the form of a poem 900+ years after Su’s death....
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Phra Aphai Mani, by Thai Poet Sunthorn Phu
Cropped photo of “The Wives,” by Jirot Piempook. Currently on display at The Queen’s Gallery in Bangkok. I recently came across the above painting by Jirot Piempook at a special exhibit, “The Best Art...
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Thai Poetry Form: The Nirat, Part One
A special form for travel verse? Marvelous! As a traveler and aspiring poet, those were my first thoughts when I read about the nirat (or nirāt, นิราศ) a significant form in classical Thai poetry....
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Donald Keene Regarding Mt. Fuji
Sunrise as seen from Mt. Fuji, September 2009. The Asahi Shimbun recently published an article in which they spoke with Donald Keene, a U.S.-born scholar on Japanese literature and culture who now...
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Heavy as a Mango
Trees now mark the edge of the killing field at Choeung Ek, near Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I’m here in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for the second time. Last year, I spent two nights here wrapped around a trip to...
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Translator Lucas Klein Interview on Asymptote
And a few notes on Chinese poet Xi Chuan Chinese-language translator Lucas Klein recently gave an interview titled “Translators of the World, Unite!” with Patty Nash for Asymptote Journal. Klein...
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Poetry Foundation Publishes Sampler of Asian American Voices
Poetry Foundation recently compiled a sampling of Asian American poets. The list includes several of my favorites (Ai, Li-Young Li, Tung Hui Hu) and many whose work I’m not familiar with but look...
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