Let Those Who Appear

Championed by Kenneth Rexroth, who inspired her early work, poet Kazuko Shiraishi has won numerous awards in Japan since she began publishing in the 1950s. Let Those Who Appear is the first English-language volume of her work to appear in over 25 years. Translated by Yumiko Tsumura and Samuel Grolmes, professors of Japanese at California's Foothill College and the College of San Mateo, respectively, the book contains selections from several of Shiraishi's recent books. Born in Canada but moving to Japan in childhood, the now septuagenarian Shiraishi writes loose, whimsical, often witty verse (""The antibiotic of the Amazon bee has the smell of hashish It's a good smell!""), but many of the poems have serious undertones as she addresses environmental destruction, poverty and social injustice. (Apr. 29)