PINK

Author: Yuko Otomo

Publisher: Lithic Press (2024)

Reading Yuko Otomo's new work, PINK, is like visiting Paris without getting on a plane. This collection of prose poems delves into the deepest conundrums of human existence. She observes and muses upon time and love, poverty and compassion, crown and clown, the difference between r and l, the confusion of beauty and ugliness, of masculine/feminine. She continually probes the paradox found throughout the spectrum of human emotion. These poems, originally written in her native Japanese, are inspired by the writer's love of Charles Baudelaire. Otomo deals with the despair of being a conscious human who sees and feels the conflicts and contradictions of life, and still is able to find, "Rest hidden under a piece of tiny blue feather." Don't just read this book, live with it.