Naoshi Koriyama (extra)

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Naoshi Koriyama (extra)

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Naoshi Koriyama (extra)

Naoshi Koriyama
1926-

Naoshi Koriyama studied English in Japan before coming to the United States to complete his college education. After returning to Japan in 1967, he taught American poetry at Toyo University in Tokyo.

Translator of Poetry, Koriyama's poems have appeared in high school textbooks in the United States, Canada, and Australia. He has also made English translations of Japanese poetry and folk songs from the Amamio Islands where he was born and raised. Among his works are We Wrote These Poems (translator) and Plum Tree in Japan and Other Poems.

A Loaf of Poetry

you mix
the dough
of experience
with
the yeast
of inspiration
and knead it well
with love
and pound it
with all your might
and then
leave it
until
it puffs out big
with its own inner force
and then
knead it again
and
shape it
into a round form
and bake it
in the oven
of your heart

--Nayoshi Koriyama--

Found at:

http://mbhs.bergtraum.k12.ny.us/cybereng/poetry/loaf.html

Unfolding Bud

One is amazed
By a water-lily bud
Unfolding
With each passing day,
Taking on a richer color,
And new dimensions.

One is not amazed,
At first glance,
By a poem,
Which is as tight-closed
as a tiny bud.

Yet one is surprised
To see the poem
Gradually unfolding,
Revealing its rich inner self,
As one reads it
Again
And over again.

--Naoshi Koriyama--

Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle and Other Modern Verse compiled by Dunning, S, Leuders, E. & Smith, H., published by Scholastic Books, 1996.