PRAYERS FROM JAPAN
NOTE: Tanka poet Father Neal Henry Lawrence (Blossoms in Time, 2000; Shining Moments, 1993) informed me he would be meeting U.S. Ambassador Howard Baker and Mrs. Nancy Baker in Tokyo on Friday, September 21 “despite the horrorendous terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the intended one on President Bush and the White House.” Neal went on to write, “We shall continue prayers for the dead, the injured and their family and friends. Please join us in these prayers.” We are with you, Father.

AMERICAN POETS IN JAPAN: CID CORMAN
There are a number of American poets in Yaponesia. Most recognizable are Cid Corman, Irving Stettner (who nows publishes Stroker out of Saitama) and Rexroth scholar Morgan Gibson (see Morgan’s column “Philosophizing in the Void” in Kyoto Journal). As you may know, Cid, the poet-translator, edited the journal which contributed to the development of avant-garde American poetry since the 50s, “a quarterly for the creative,” Origin.

I first came into contact with Cid through an introduction by poet-editor Sherry Reniker in 1993. I was recruiting learning resources for my Individualized Master’s in creative writing and she suggested I contact him. At first he was reluctant to do academic-related work, but I was somehow able to convince him to instruct me in my studies. I was fortunate to study the poetry of Black Mountain poet Charles Olson under Cid’s tutelage.

A resident of Kyoto for 51 years now, Cid Corman continues his prolific output of poetry. He tells me he writes a book a day! And Sendai-based Bookgirl Press, to prove that point, published the chapbook All in a Day’s Work, which as the title indicates, was written in a day. Taguchi Tetsuya, poet, translator and editor of the journal Electric Rexroth, points out succinctly “Kyoto became a center of American poetry because of his presence.”

In my first interview with Cid, published in the Tokyo-based literary review Printed Matter (ed. Edgar Henry, 1999), he told me he met William Burroughs at the Beat Hotel in Paris in the 50’s and took him out to lunch after Bill handed him the manuscript of Naked Lunch! Apparently Burroughs was interested in Cid because he had met Henri Michaux, the first artist-writer to use LSD, and Burroughs wanted an introduction.

When I asked for his views on the current state of poetry today, Cid answered in a card, “Never have the pressures against making the true article been so great. Everything is MONEY and NOISE. Warhol celebrity. Product. BIZNIS. There are many camps. Various academic stances -- from Lang Gang all the way down to literary embroidery. Ethnic work -- carefully confined to a group -- effluencing (sic) into variant raps... Poetry itself tends to occur now in isolate instances -- independent spirits: whether Ted Enslin, Bill Bronk or Bob Arnold, George Evans and Charlie Mehrhoff.” He went on to write in high polemic mode, “American poetry of the 20th century is second to none. It has broken free of the British connection with a vengeance.”

When I met Gary Snyder (Cid was the first to publish a volume of Gary’s poetry, Riprap, through Origin Press) in Tokyo on July 4, 1997 (you can read my interview with Gary in Blue Beat Jacket), he remarked that Cid could have enjoyed more popularity (not his exact words), if he had accepted Donald Allen’s invitation to publish in the influential New American Poets anthology. I followed up that lead and in a new unpublished interview with me, he recalled how he told Allen, “I want to wait ’til I have a regular publisher before I go into an anthology so that people can see other work of mine. I don’t want to be identified with a few poems...”

Cid’s poetry is marked by an elegant touch, deep image and subtle word-twistage. One of my favorites from Nothing Doing takes advantage of synesthesia to great effect. It goes:

In the shadow of
a butterfly the echo
of a temple bell

MORE CORMAN ON THE NET

• Poems from The Despairs at Longhouse Publishers & Booksellers site
• 31 poems in The American Poetry Review, July 2000
• Untitled poems in Issue 1 of Lit Vert
• “Another Handful” in The East Village Poetry Web, No. 1
• Selections from No Telling in The East Village Poetry Web, No. 2
• 6 poems in The East Village Poetry Web, No. 7 (also in audio)
• 6 poems in Oyster Boy Review 8
• 6 poems in Oyster Boy Review 12
• 7 poems in Milk Magazine, Volume 1
• 4 poems in Milk Magazine, Volume 2
• 6 poems & Corman in conversation with Philip Rowland in FlashPøint
• “Getting the Secret Out of Cid Corman” by Gregory Dunne in Kyoto Journal

Taylor Mignon