co-editor, Alan Botsford (since 2005)

 

POETRY KANTO is a venue for introducing to readers in Japan and elsewhere exciting contemporary poetry in English, as well as introducing to readers overseas contemporary and 20th century Japanese poetry in English translation.

 

Comments from readers of Poetry Kanto:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think Poetry Kanto's blend of languages and poetic traditions is unique in all the world. It sets up an international dialogue that is very valuable--especially for a national poetry (like that of the United States) that can sometimes be too self-absorbed.
Michael S. Collins, poet & editor of Callaloo

I find it very intriguing... How strange to learn of fine poets in America from a magazine printed in Japan!
Gregory Orr, poet & author

 

 "Thank you...for the impressive Poetry Kanto. I had no idea it would be such a beautiful production. The quality of the work is so high. Thanks for introducing me to the work of so many wonderful poets."
Gwyneth Lewis, poet & author (first Poet Laureate of Wales)

"Thank you for the beautiful new Poetry Kanto. It looks wonderful (the new design is very sleek) and the lineup of poets writing in English is terrific, as are the translations."
Leza Lowitz, poet, author, translator

 

"I'm so very impressed. I loved the poems in (it)--several fav poets and some new names, too. The whole issue looks great."
Beth Ann Fennelly, poet & author

"What a beautiful journal. And what a great range of work... I must say, I feel true kinship with the sensibility of the work, the edginess but discipline, musicality, rawness, all of it. Congrats and thank you."
Bruce A. Jacobs, poet & author

"I am a big admirer of Poetry Kanto... it is really beautiful."
Ann Fisher-Wirth, poet & editor

"I am impressed at the fine quality of poets you have selected... I am especially interested to see that many of the English poets appear to be quite critically engaged with social issues... Kudos to you and the other editors for finding such a super collection!"
Jeffrey Angles, translator

"I'm very excited about it. It's a great looking mag."
Michael Sowder, poet & editor of Isotope

 

 

 

 

 

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Poetry Kanto  No. 28

2012

 

(now reading submissions...)

 

Poetry Kanto  No. 27

2011

There was a time of the trembling; then a time of the forcing of overt images. We now have our sanctuary only within the open secret in which the tissue of life reverses and restores…

   --Robert Duncan  (The H.D. Book)

Hiromi Ito   Jeffrey Angles   Libby Hart  (AU)  Geneva Bronwyn Hargreaves (CA)  William Elliott   Gavin Bantock (U.K.)  Sally Bliumis-Dunn   Gregory Dunne  Leila Fortier   Niels Hav  (DK)   Changming Yuan  (CA)   William Heyen  Michael Sowder  Adele Ne Jame   Yumiko Tsumura   Jane Hirshfield 

 

It all happened while we were talking, and it is still going on.

    --Dorothy Day

There is life just listen.

    --Juan Filipe Herrera

To descend is to listen.

    --Ray Gonzalez



 

Poetry Kanto No. 25   2009   

What distinguishes poetry from automatic speech is that it

rouses us and shakes us into wakefulness in

the middle of a word.

--Osip Mandelstam

  Carol Frith  Charles F. Thielman      Terri Brown-Davidson



 

Poetry Kanto  No. 24   2008

What would the exeprience mean, I ask, to

view the cosmos  through another grammar?

--Susan Griffin



 

Poetry Kanto No. 23   2007

Love does not come at the end; it must be 

there at the beginning. It is not reason's 

Tower of Babel  that joins us to the divine,

but our open heart.

--Claire Ch-ah Lyu (A Sun within a Sun)

   Yoshimoto Yasuhiro    Minashita Kiriu     Tada Chimako



 

Poetry Kanto No. 22   2006

Nagase Kiyoko    Takarabe Toriko    Inuo Taguchi 



Poetry Kanto No. 21   2005 

Time comes into it.

Say it.     Say it.

The universe is made of stories,

not of atoms.

--Muriel Rukeyser

Gwyneth Lewis (U.K.)   Ilya Kaminsky    Beth Ann Fennelly     Vijay

Seshadri     Harryette Mullen    Bruce A. Jacobs     Ellen Bass    

Rigoberto Gonzalez        Ayukawa Nobuo      Kitamura Taro   

    Tatehata Akira         Tanikawa Shunataro