Other side river : free verse

Japanese poets have been writing tanka and haiku for hundreds of years. Japanese free verse, however, is barely a century old, and women’s free verse in Japan is younger still. This collection, the second volume in the Stone Bridge anthology of contemporary Japanese women’s poetry, introduces the work of some three dozen of Japan’s finest women poets who specialize in free verse. Remarkable for their diversity and passion, these poems provide a vivid contrast to the more traditional verse forms featured in Volume One, A Long Rainy Season.