Tuesday poem #547 : Jason Emde : heaven & earth go about their changes

 

 

every time I worry
my libido’s shot forever
I remember Ai
naked, smooth-skinned,
mounting Setsuko
& kiss-licking her,
Setsuko stroking Ai’s thigh
with the back of her hand
long ago—

snow slides off a leaf of bamboo,

 

leaf leaps up

 

 

 

 

Jason Emde is a teacher, writer, undefeated amateur boxer, Prince enthusiast, podcaster, and a graduate of the University of British Columbia's MFA Creative Writing program. A finalist for the CBC Creative Nonfiction literary award, Jason is the author of My Hand’s Tired & My Heart Aches (Kalamalka Press, 2005) and little bit die (Bolero Bird, 2023). Informed and inspired by such authors as Jack Kerouac, Don DeLillo, Susan Musgrave, Walt Whitman, Lucia Berlin, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, and Joan Didion, and focused on roving, expatriation, pilgrimage, loss, and a systematic derangement of the senses, his work has appeared in numerous magazines and journals, including Real Travel, The Malahat Review, Soliloquies Anthology, Ulalume Lighthouse, PopMatters, The Watershed Review, Short Writings from Bulawayo III, Burnt Pine Magazine, and Who Lies Beautifully: The Kalamalka Anthology, as well as featuring in Orange Lighthouse's Post-a-Poem project. Emde is also the creator and host of the Writers Read Their Early Sh*t podcast. Now working on a travel memoir, Solved By Walking: Wising Up, Breaking Through, & Conquering Death on Japan’s 1200-Year-Old Buddhist Pilgrimage, Emde lives in Gifu City, Japan, with his wife, Maho, and their typhoon sons, Joe and Sasha.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan