From Osaka to Austin to Slo

"By the Rivers of Edo" calls to mind the Rivers of Babylon in the Psalms. Old Edo too was crisscrossed by rivers, moats and canals, laid out in a regular grid, a network much more organized than the narrow wandering streets. The best means of transportation was by boat. Edo was often referred to as the "Venice of the East." In these poems, "rivers" serves as a metaphor for memory and imagination. This second volume follows my pedagogical peregrinations first to Osaka Japan, then to Austin Texas, then to Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo. Poems are from my first three published volumes: Following the Serpent (1984), Proletarian Life (1987), and San Luis Obispo Sundeck Afternoons & Other Disasters (1989)