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"Taking their cue from over a hundred years of Japanese linked verse, four erstwhile strangers set out on their own adventurous pilgrimage of renshi. Straying from clas [...]
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As all writers have discovered, the stories are out there, waiting. Often they appear before us when we are on the move. Go for a walk or a drive and they simpl [...]
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Poets are time travelers. They move through time as swiftly as the mind darts from today to a dusty past, or from this known moment to an unknown future. The new Bamboo Ridge Press book No Choice but to Follow documents a year in the lives of poets Jean Yamasaki Toyama, Juliet S. Kono, Ann Inoshita, and Christy Passion as they created 48 linked poems.

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The idea of linked poems, so beautifully realized in the new Bamboo Ridge Press book No Choice but to Follow, fits snugly into a larger idea. The four poets—Jean Yamasaki Toyama, Juliet S. Kono, Ann Inoshita, and Christy Passion—linked their poems, one to the next, for twelve months in 2008.

What exactly did they use to link the poems?  They used words.  Taking the last line of the most recent poem as the starting point for a new poem, they connected not only poems, they also connected experiences, memories, and emotions. One poem built upon the other, the project grew, unfolding like an exotic, yet familiar, flower.

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Christmas arrived this week in the mailbox, either four months late or eight months early, or maybe right on time.  It came in the form of a modest [...]
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The famous ethnic and cultural diversity of Hawaii is something we love to point out to anyone who will listen. I’ve known this for thirty years now, because it’s been that long since I moved to the islands from Seattle (on January 8, 1980), taking one of those crazy leaps of faith, trusting that this was where I belonged.

Aside from the natural beauty of Hawaii, the beauty and diversity of its people are what we grow to appreciate more deeply over the years. This is one amazing mix plate.

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More voices on the page, or on the computer screen of this blog, continue to echo into the first hours of a new year. Here are some more of the voices that brightened “A Little Romance” in 2009.

Ghislaine Chock, whose poems “The Phone” and “The Office” appear in the new Bamboo Ridge collection … I asked Ghislaine to comment on the creation of these two poems and the inspiration for them:

The creation of these poems came naturally. I learned from Eric that even if you are not a poet one can express feelings, moments, emotions, etc. through poetry. I am more than fortunate to live with a poet. Poets are able to make you understand and see the world through their keen eyes with exquisite sensitivity. That is their function.

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Bill Teter, ed. From the powerful opening words of the Kumulipo to the propulsive rhymes of contemporary slam poetry, Hāpai nā Leo celebrates a diverse range of voices that explore, carry, and regenerate Hawaiian culture. Editor Bill Teter created Hāpai nā Leo as a literary companion to Malcolm [...]
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The new Bamboo Ridge collection, Issue #94, launches this Monday evening (November 23) at the UH Campus Center Ballroom. The event is free and open to the public, with a reception at 7 p.m. and reading at 7:30 p.m.

Featured readers: Ann Inoshita, Brenda Kwon, Michael Little, Wing Tek Lum, Alexei Melnick, Tyler Miranda, Janine Oshiro, K. L. Quilantang, Jr., Joseph Stanton, Delaina Thomas, and Kahikahealani Wight.

I want to spotlight two poems from the book, written by Ghislaine Chock. I asked Ghislaine to comment on the creation of these two poems and the inspiration for them.

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