Inside

By Amy Uyematsu b. 1947 Amy Uyematsu

based on photographs from Rural Japan:
Radiance of the Ordinary

/ afloat

two boats with no riders

still moving on water

the hulls barely touching

each with a single oar

safely propped

so it won’t fall

/ lotus leaves

close into themselves

at night

on their wide folded backs

water beads

inside, their sleeping

flowers

/ inside

do the carp

just below the water’s stillness

see the pines

/ fall daikon

just pulled from the soil

these pungent roots

hang from bamboo poles

their white tubed bodies

bend as if slightly aroused

each ripe radish will

be drenched

in salt

then eaten raw

all winter

/ lone pine

ancient tree

with so many tongues

how long this throated stem

this stillness before rain

Amy Uyematsu, “Inside” from Stone Bow Prayer. Copyright © 2005 by Amy Uyematsu. Reprinted by permission of Copper Canyon Press. www.coppercanyonpress.org

Source: Stone Bow Prayer (Copper Canyon Press, 2005)

Biography

Poet Amy Uyematsu was raised in southern California by parents who had been interned in American camps during World War II. She earned her undergraduate degree in mathematics at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Uyematsu’s poems consider the intersection of politics, mathematics, spirituality, and the natural world. She is the author of several poetry collections, including Stone Bow Prayer (2005), Nights of Fire, . . .

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