From Left to Right I Ponder Politics and Kanji
In the evening I pour wine to celebrate
another day’s survival. My motions:
up to down, left to right. Glass
from cabinet, wine to mouth.
And then I return to the page.
The character for stone, ishi,
portrays a slope with a stone
at its base, and I take comfort
in knowing that as my knee aches
at the thought of climbing, ishi exists
in descent only. A volcano belches,
producing hi, fire, rising above the
cone, while earth, tsuchi, lies firm
beneath the shoots pushing up,
outward, and ame, rain,
consists of clouds and dotted
lines and the sky above. But if
wind is made of insects and
plums, do I assemble new meaning
without fact or wisdom, form
or assumed inflection, left to
down, up to right? Consider water,
its currents, its logic and needs.
Consider truth. This is how I think.
* * *
“From Left to Right I Ponder Politics and Kanji” appeared in Bonnie McClellan’s International Poetry Month celebration in February 2017.
O at the Edges 
Politics can be a murky subject to thread. I used to love talking about politics, but it got too toxic.
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Politics are terribly divisive these days.
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Very much.
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I love this–the rhythms, the gestures, the way you make the kanji come alive, the ever-subtle and profound turns of thought. I could picture the characters in my mind as you animated them so beautifully.
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Thanks very much, Craig. The characters are beautiful, and laced with history and meaning.
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I LOVE how you play with the kanji here. Nihongo really is a delight for the mind and tongue!
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I wish I really knew kanji, but I did my best.
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Everyone wishes they knew kanji better, including most Japanese people.People who don’t study Japanese don’t realize that it takes a Japanese student from Kindergarten to Grade 12 before they can comfortably read the front page of a newspaper, such is the nature of kanji. But me personally, knowing that I will never know any significant number of them, rather enjoy the process of reviewing and learning them. It feels wonderfully scholastic.
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I know only a handful, and not well. But I could say that about almost anything.
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