Japanese Prints

A sequence of lyric poems evokes scenes drawn from woodblock prints and theatre, arranged in four parts that move from intimate love scenes through memory and forgetting to clouded introspection and evening reflections. Sparse, imagistic lines conjure geisha, actors, festivals, seasonal weather, and landscapes while emphasizing transience, longing, and exile. Many poems adopt the observer's stance, registering shifting moods through natural details—cherry blossoms, rain, cranes, wind—and artistic motifs such as lanterns, masks, and the names of printmakers. The tone is elegiac and atmospheric, favoring sensory fragments and restrained narrative that suggest remembrance and impermanence.