fuche_bu's Full Review: Nanao Sakaki - Break the Mirror: The Poems of Nana...
Asian poetry has always intrigued me. I have always loved reading haiku by the old masters Basho and Ryokan. I also have greatly enjoyed many Chinese poets like Li Po. I was greatly curious when I began reading about Nanao Sakaki. This is a contemporary Japanese poet who is a notorious wanderer. He writes in the Asian tradition while traveling the world. Sakaki is as confortable in San Francisco as he is in Tokyo.
I was curious enough that I had to check out his verse. I found Break the Mirror: The Poems of Nanao Sakaki through Amazon. The decision to throw it in my shopping cart was easy. Sakaki seemed like a fascinating chap. There seemed to be great promise with this title. It was also intriguing to read that he often writes poetry in Japanese then translates it into English. He has also written poems in English and then translated them into Japanese. I guess this cuts out the middle man.
My expectation was that he would mostly write out of the classic Asian style. There would be a lot of short, succinct poems. I was also curious to see how he would fuse the new world with the classic style. Much of what I read implied that he was quite at home drifting through America. I was thinking maybe we'll end up with a Japanese beatnik. I was just hoping that it wouldn't come across as gimmicky.
The poems in Breaking the Mirror provided a happy surprise. Sakaki is a very insightful poet who avoids cliche. He can have fun with his verse. He does throw in a few jokes on the beats. In Urgent Telegram he worries about a son being a Dharma bum. A bust on Kerouac, perhaps? He does seem like he is having fun with his words. He first visited America in 1969 so it's unlikely he met Kerouac.
In All's Right With the World, he references television and cultural icons like Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe and Star Trek. But he also writes poems about the first snow of the season. This is one of his strengths as a poet. He writes honestly about the world he lives in. He won't pretend that technology doesn't exist because it's deemed unpoetic. Sakaki seems to accept the modern world even if he does not embrace it.
He is troubled by the loss of nature. He writes with sorrow about the loss of natural beauty. I do like that he manages to avoid being too preachy. No one likes a sermonizer. Well, I don't like a sermonizer. I've been to enough poetry events to know that preaching and self pity are often the order of the day. One reason I like Bukowski is the honesty and rawness. Sakaki is never as crude as Bukowski but he is honest and he can be a little raw.
Friday morning. Mountains and rivers are gone. Drive to a nearby city. No mountains, no rivers there either. Call the Federal Government. Phone rings three times--no answer.
There are a lot of fine moments in this book. There are a few duds but that's to be expected with a volume of poetry. Not every single poem will necessarily resonate. I found Sakaki to be an illuminating poetic voice. I know I'm jumping countries but he does recall the boisterous spirit of Li Po. He has a joyousness that I like in poetry. He is a wanderer. Hence the poem and title of this review "Go With Muddy Feet." Those are fine words indeed. This is a volume of poetry that I am very glad I purchased.
I will recommend this one for fans of Asian poetry and also for fans of modern poetry. Sakaki embraces nature but he is very contemporary. I think this book will please poetry fans. He can be very lucid and also brings a sly sense of humor to the mix. This is a fine example of late 20th Century poetry.
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