in a bar near shibuta station, tokyo / poem by paul engle / (www.poetryfoundation.org/ )

paul engle 's poetry...
www.poetryfoundation.org/


                              
                    'in a bar near shibuya,tokyo' 
                     poem by paul engle

                 

                               Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, poet 
                                             received a BA from Coe College and
                                             a MA -- one of the first in the country
                                             to include a creative writing thesis --
                                             from  the University of Iowa.  His thesis
                                             won the Yale Series of Younger Poets
                                             award and was published as the poetry
                                             collection Worn Earth (1932).  Engle
                                             began his doctoral work at Columbia
                                             University, and then received a Rhodes
                                             Scholarship, allowing him to study  at
                                             Oxford University with the poet Edmund
                                             Blunden while earning his second MA.
                                              ...
                                              In 1967, with his wife, Chinese poet
                                              Hualing Nieh Engle, he co-founded
                                              the International Writing Program at the
                                              University of Iowa. Engle and his wife
                                              were nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize
                                              in 1976 for their work supporting
                                              international writers.
                                              ...
                                              His memoir, A Lucky American Childhood, 
                                              was published posthumously in 1996.
                                              Engle edited numerous anthologies,
                                              including the Ozark Anthology (1938),
                                              Reading Modern Poetry (1955, with
                                              Warren Carrier), and Poet's Choice (1962), 
                                              with Joseph Langland). He was the series
                                              editor for the O.Henry Prize from 1954- 1959.

                                              Engle died in 1991, at Chicago's O'Hare Airport,
                                              on his way to accept an award.
                                           
                             
                                              

                            IN A BAR NEAR SHIBUYA STATION, TOKYO 
                            poem by Paul Engle


                            The Japanese next to me at the bar
                             bites at his sake with big irregular teeth.
                             Behind the heavy glasses (which he wears
                             like an elegant suit of clothes) his eyes
                             are yellow as the warm wine he is drinking.


                             He turns like a door opening and says
                             with an aggressive softness, 'USA?'


                             I nod, waiting to see the color of his mind.


                             'I was wounded at Okinawa.'
                             The words drop reluctantly from his mouth
                             like drops of wine from the bottom of the bottle.

                             I set my weight on the soles of my feet
                             and keep a careful eye on his hands.
                             he pulls up his sleeves. The scar cries out
                             along his arm like an exclamation mark.
                             What words do you speak to accusing wound?
                             He looks at the scar as a man looks at a bug
                             crawling his sin, with interest and loathing,
                             wishing that it would simply go away.

                             'I'm sorry', I say. The words in their silly weakness
                             vibrate in the vivid lamplight of the bar
                             before they fall to the floor with a shamed rustle.

                             He clenches an unclenches his fit. The scar ripples.

                             I lift my hands. I am ready, like a new kid
                             uneasy on a school ground the first day.

                             'American doctor ix my arm good', he says
                             And then his face collapses in to a smile.
                             He not fix good, pick up sake now.'

                             He lifts the blue-gazed, lovely curving up
                             and gestures gently towards me. Shyly his eyes
                             move over mine like a friendly hand. We drink.

                             He puts the cup down  carefully on the bar
                             with a brave lightness,as it were a bomb
                             waiting to go off and blast his hand.

                             
                              His face the cup down carefully on the bar
                              with a brave lightness, as if it were a bomb
                              waiting to go to off and blast his hand.


                               His face goes back to being merely a face.


                               Outside, Tokyo growls like a hunting tiger.


                               Paul Engle


                                       http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/paul-engle  

                                          
                               poet's choice
                                              edited by paul engle & joseph langland