In The Poetry

‘Dreaming in the Shanghai Restaurant’ – I should perhaps say the restaurant wasn’t in Shanghai nor indeed in any other part of China but in Singapore.

Dreaming in the Shanghai Restaurant

I would like to be that elderly Chinese gentleman.
He wears a gold watch with a gold bracelet,
but a shirt without sleeves or tie.
He has good luck [...]

A vignette from post-war Japan.

The Noodle-Vendor’s Flute

In a real city, from a real house,
At midnight by the ticking clocks,
In winter by the crackling roads:
Hearing the noodle-vendor’s flute,
Two single fragile falling notes…
But what can this small sing-song say,
Under the noise of war?
The flute itself a counterfeit
(Siberian wind can freeze the lips),
Merely a rubber bulb and metal [...]