The Poetry Stash: 26Mar2024

Under the Wave of Kanagawa by Amy Uyematsu

Today’s poem is “Under the Wave of Kanagawa” by Amy Uyematsu from the anthology When She Named Fire, An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry by American Women. The book is available for purchase here.

Under the Wave of Kanagawa by Amy Uyematsu
	from Hokusai’s “36 Views of Mt. Fuji”

i
We who have witnessed
	a wave that dwarfs mountains
		cannot stay away from your waters.

We who are fed
	by armfuls of seaweed and fish
		sew garments of blue deep as indigo.

We who are swept away
	in your furious white claws
		keep coming back in our light yellow boats.

ii
I am your granddaughter but your words were lost
	by the time I was born. I couldn’t hear your stories
		of how you crossed the ocean,
			you couldn’t tell me the names.

I don’t even know if you ever climbed Mt. Fuji.
	You love me as only grandparents can—
		without really knowing who I am,
			without expecting me to understand you.

How could you guess this yearning I hold
	for a language I was never taught, this delight
		in putting woodblock prints on my walls,
			or this reverence for stones?

I can only guess you gave up
	during those long years in Manzanar and Gila.
		You didn’t waste time on bitterness
			or anger—strange, that I should harbor

So much, thinking that’s what mattered—
	my years of noisy outrage telling the world
                 how much you suffered unfairly.
	                But now I’m not so sure if you needed

Vindication. I think what mattered more
	were the small green shoots which
		you watered in your gardens,
			or the platters of hand-made sushi

You prepared for holidays and special picnics.
	Would you feel gratified that a president
		apologized, or that you became
			heroes to my generation?

I wish you could know I’d grow weary of anger
	and finally really understand “shikataganai”—
		that certain tragedies cannot be avoided—
			to make the best of it, like you.

Prompts:

1.	Begin with “I was never taught…”
2.	Begin with “We who have witnessed…”
3.	Draft poem exploring your ancestors. Use fragments of what you remember and what you don’t.
4.	Draft a poem that explores U.S. history and how it affected/affects your family’s experience in the United States.

5. Photographic reproduction of woodblock print, The Great Wave Off the Coast of Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai via commons.wikimedia.org. This work is in the pubic domain. Use this image as a writing prompt.

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