Amy Uyematsu
Amy Uyematsu Poems
So by sixteen we move in packs
learn to strut and slide
in deliberate lowdown rhythm
talk in a syn/co/pa/ted beat
...
How many years of suffering
revealed in hands like his
small and deliberate as a child's
...
A mere eyelid's distance between you and me.
It took us a long time to discover the number zero.
John's brother is afraid to go outside.
...
- rio de janeiro jardim botanico, 2009
inside this forest / the sky is invisible / as it rains all morning
so many open mouths / philodendrum and palm / bromiliad and wren
...
in season's late rain / we travel poppy-domed hills/ pilgrims' eyes
brimming / the chirp of sparrows and kids / playing well past dark
whose small throated sighs / a lover's quarrel / that blue trickster
...
call me superstitious : 9/9/9
Photo of Amy Uyematsu by Raul Contreras
time to take stock, turn a corner, or
...
There's no way to know where I start. Or end.
What appears to be outside & so obviously
true is a trick, curving like a slow-moving figure eight
that somehow turns inside out. I can try
...
The "Welcome" sign
still hangs above
his garden gate
...
Once I was married to a Buddhist.
I was raised Protestant, but we didn't
seem so different—our parents made us
go to Sunday School, where we sang
...
/ afloat
two boats with no riders
still moving on water
the hulls barely touching
...
can go to Bible study every Sunday
and swear she's still not convinced,
but she likes to be around people who are.
We have the same conversation
...
Amy Uyematsu Biography
Amy Uyematsu (born 1947) is a Japanese-American poet. Growing up in Southern California, Uyematsu was torn between the Japanese culture of her family and the American culture of her environment, a conflict which has deeply influenced her writing and poetry. She penned the essay 'The Emergence of Yellow Power' in 1969 (for the Japanese-American journal Gidra), an assertion of Asian-American identity influenced by the consciousness-raising theories of Black Power. She is now a high school math teacher and many of her poems reflect elements of math and quote mathematic equations. She has published three poetry books: Nights of Fire, Nights of Rain, 30 Miles from J-town, and Stone Bow Prayer.)
The Best Poem Of Amy Uyematsu
Deliberate
So by sixteen we move in packs
learn to strut and slide
in deliberate lowdown rhythm
talk in a syn/co/pa/ted beat
because we want so bad
to be cool, never to be mistaken
for white, even when we leave
these rowdier L.A. streets—
remember how we paint our eyes
like gangsters
flash our legs in nylons
sassy black high heels
or two inch zippered boots
stack them by the door at night
next to Daddy's muddy gardening shoes.
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4/25/2024 11:08:28 PM # 1.0.0.1119
