Kyoto-Dwelling: A Year of Brief Poems #

Edith Shiffert #

July 9, 2023

5/5

Given that I have been in Chicago for some time at this point, it would have been sooner or later that I would go to the Poetry Foundation and yesterday I suppose was my day. In all honesty, I was not expecting to find any books in their library that would genuinely enthrall me - mostly because I felt like I had to know what I was looking for to get some enthrallment. Though, for some reason or another, this book was the second I picked up, and somehow it was able to capture my attention long enough for me to genuinely want to read the rest.

This book has an outstanding introduction, much more so than I can say with many other books. Reading it, in itself, was extremely enjoyable and lay a great foundation for much of the poetry itself.

And when it came to the poetry, it was genuinely incredible. I was having a bit of harried day up to that point, and had been anxious over a few things, but the smooth nature of the poetry in this book was so calming as to have remarkably improved my mood. The very nature of it was so incredibly calming and peaceful, and the elegance and beauty that permeated the simplicity and silence (which felt like the hallmark attributes of the poetical journey within to me) was astounding.

It felt almost to me like though there is an immense simplicity to the nature around the author in her Kyoto dwelling, it is just that simplicity that has pervaded time to bring such beauty in nature to us to this day.

I cannot recommend this book enough.