Foriegnn Bodie

Author: Nada Gordon 

Publisher: Detour Press (2001)

This long-overdue, luminously expressive volume collects poems, notebook fragments, Japanese/English vocabulary lists, and expatriate observations written during the author's eleven years in Japan. These delicately cadenced, sometimes hilarious, poems are filled with the realia of Japanese life, including station names, temples, butoh dancers, foods ("sexy sexy/sweet black bean dumpling") and found English ("Octopus army / ordinary life should be boycotted"). Also replete with Japanese words ("momiji / dokudami / ume"), for which a special glossary is included.