Synopses & Reviews
Yokohama
Wondering why not a single plum tree grew
in the holy compound of the Ise Shrine,
Basho was told
there was no special reason...
Hot night on Isezaki Street.
Big yellow moon.
Storefront TV. After six full innings Tokyo
leads Hiroshima, 5 to 3.
What is this? Japanese bartenders look
like American bartenders.
Sonuvabitch! Drunk in Yokohama
and Basho isn't here.
Clemens Starck works as a carpenter and construction foreman.
Also Available by Clemens Starck
Journeyman's Wages
PB $10.95, 1-885266-02-2 CUSA
Synopsis
The poems of China Basin, Clemens Starck's long-awaited third collection, are born in the blue-collar world of hard work. Whether they focus on a scene in contemporary Russia, which the poet has visited several times in recent years, or chart the steps in building a barn, an office building, or a poem, they are immediate and profound.
About the Author
Clemens Starck, a 1998 Wittr Bynner Fellow and poet-in-residence at Willamette University, has supported his literary and intellectual interests for more than forty years by working with his hands, mainly as a carpenter and construction foreman. In 1995, his first book won the Oregon Book Award and the William Stafford Memorial Poetry Award.