Nomura, Kiwao

Japan, (b. 1951)

(spectacle & pigsty)

  1. it’s pigsty I
  2. the darkness maybe darkness stupendously stretching out now like taffy
  3. man fed up with man star with star
  4.  
  5. it’s pigsty I
  6. pity the pig that eternally returns
  7. to the darkness as spattering splotches of light
  8.  
  9. below Mother’s diseased pineal gland
  10. it’s pigsty I
  11. screaming drowning in a dark that fenestrates the eternal joist
  12.  
  13. it’s pigsty I
  14. must be five times more I than I
  15. when trying to listen to the scream
  16.  
  17. below Mother’s diseased pineal gland
  18. it’s pigsty I
  19. gushing sunlight like nightsoil onto the eternal joist
  20.  
  21. or the nightsoil like sunlight
  22. it’s pigsty I
  23. who mulch silence’s muck while it laughs, steaming
  24.  
  25. each bent in bent out
  26. each urged, cajoled, or shackled gently to another
  27. it’s pigsty I
  28.  
  29. it’s pigsty I
  30. vertigo: when the whole becomes center
  31. attuned to the place where fat oak leaves flutter
  32.  
  33. every day is vertigo its margins boiling over like foam
  34. it’s pigsty I
  35. eyeing pieces of I in bewilderment weird is it not?
  36.  
  37. it’s pigsty I
  38. see the burning skull through the pain-board gaps oh
  39. fawn-colored Whirlaway gallops by
  40.  
  41. the thick fire wall of pain-board sleep oh
  42. perforated with pinholes staring out
  43. it’s pigsty I
  44.  
  45. it’s pigsty I
  46. babbling bugs clamoring through the perforations
  47. it’s like I’m coming down with a rash of pinheads
  48.  
  49. it’s pigsty I
  50. swallow me swallow me Mother expiring
  51. and never again shit me out
  52.  
  53. never shit me out again Mother
  54. it’s pigsty I
  55. this crawling body this wad of nothing but heat
  56.  
  57. it’s pigsty I
  58. imagine faces but they’re phantoms under
  59. which the face of a girl comes clear as starvation
  60.  
  61. when eternity canters off in the shape of a horse
  62. it’s pigsty I
  63. it’s pig always pig that returns
  64.  
  65. it’s pigsty I
  66. packed with menacing muscles tensed
  67. decent solitude crappy solitude crumbling crumbling
  68.  
  69. it’s pigsty I
  70. didn’t notice in the winter dusk how
  71. the muddy corridor leads to the pigsty
  72.  
  73. it’s pigsty I
  74. see the burning skull through the pain-board gaps oh
  75. fawn-colored Whirlaway gallops by
  76.  
  77. the thick fire wall of pain-board sleep oh
  78. perforated with pinholes staring out
  79. it’s pigsty I
  80.  
  81. it’s pigsty I
  82. babbling bugs clamoring through the perforations
  83. it’s like I’m coming down with a rash of pinheads
  84.  
  85. it’s pigsty I
  86. swallow me swallow me Mother expiring
  87. and never again shit me out
  88.  
  89. never shit me out again Mother
  90. it’s pigsty I
  91. this crawling body this wad of nothing but heat
  92.  
  93. it’s pigsty I
  94. imagine faces but they’re phantoms under
  95. which the face of a girl comes clear as starvation
  96.  
  97. when eternity canters off in the shape of a horse
  98. it’s pigsty I
  99. it’s pig always pig that returns
  100.  
  101. it’s pigsty I
  102. packed with menacing muscles tensed
  103. decent solitude crappy solitude crumbling crumbling
  104.  
  105. it’s pigsty I
  106. didn’t notice in the winter dusk how
  107. the muddy corridor leads to the pigsty
  108.  
  109. it’s pigsty I
  110. burning to set an earthly convenience store on fire no reason whatsoever
  111. that muscles gleam and piggies wiggle

© Kiwao Nomura. Spectacle & Pigsty – Selected Poems of Kiwao Nomura, translated by Kyoko Yoshida & Forrest Gander. Richmond, CA: Omnidawn Publishing (2011).

(or pigsty)
To the birdcage comes spring, spring to the birdless birdcage.
— Miyoshi Tatsuiji

  1. to the pigsty comes spring,
  2. spring to the pigless pigsty,
  3. on its floor my footstep,
  4. on my footstep a macula of dust,
  5. and the dust,
  6. swirling,
  7. swirling,
  8.  
  9. want a break from life? want to quit the suffering I? forget it, it’s better to root deeper, deeper into the I to reach the crumbling pigsty, ominously muscular, dear mother extending the beam of your mind to the far shore, sweet mother, the act of rooting is, itself, pigsty, and if the muscles quiver, that too is pigsty, as you see, in the surging momentum, which almost overcomes your self, WHICH IS WHAT begins to come clear, so work hard, play hard, a pigsty doesn’t always hide a pig, WHICH IS WHAT, as it’s castrated, squeaks profane squeaks, tears sparkling, grass shooting up, in endless infancy, in endless mire, until it’s slathered in light more intense than the reek of nightsoil, WHICH IS WHAT, as it’s castrated, continues to squeak profane squeaks, dear mother, remove me, sweet mother extending the beam of your mind to the far shore, remove me, under the beam, the squeaking persists, a big dollop of the adjacent freshly steamed tea-leaves, whirling, all whirling, a plank is placed, another plank,
  10.  
  11. whirling,
  12. whirling,
  13. front becomes back,
  14. right becomes left,
  15. painboards, or pigsty,
  16. to the pigsty comes spring,
  17. spring to the pigless pigsty

© Kiwao Nomura. Spectacle & Pigsty – Selected Poems of Kiwao Nomura, translated by Kyoko Yoshida & Forrest Gander. Richmond, CA: Omnidawn Publishing (2011).

About the Poet:

Kiwao Nomura, Japan, (b. 1951), is a poet, writer, critic, and educator. He graduated from Waseda University, majoring in Japanese literature. A leading writer of the post-war generation, he is considered one of the driving forces behind contemporary Japanese poetry.

In 2007, he organized The Festival of International Poetry: Toward the Pacific Rim. From August to November 2005, he was a fellow at the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa in the United States. In December of the same year, he served as a director of the japan-European Contemporary Poetry Festival in Tokyo. [DES-01/22]

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