Saving Face: Poems Selected, 1976-1988

by Roy Miki

Roy Miki's first poetry collection is an arresting, cleanly conceived series of meditations on the ties of family and place witnessed from his own place as a third-generation Japanese-Canadian. These exquisitely balanced poems trace the fragility of ancestral bonds."The drama of Roy's life--his family, politics, community, his unswerving passion for justice--is transformed here into burning coals that glow through the long, cold night."--Joy Kogawa, author of Obasan

Genres: Poetry

91 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1991

About the author

Roy Akira Miki was a Canadian poet, scholar, editor, and activist most known for his social and literary work.

Reviews

[M.W.P.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

moss garden
rock garden

*

butterfly dead
in the lane

oranges & black
coalesce

the sparrows
cautious

in
tense

*

o may
you as well
xxxx tongue
tied to shore
like a stick

*

if the heart
is a bundle
of ends

move it,

for comfort
anything else

(unless one moves
there is no point

*

packet of lies
to stuff
the border of love

knocked on
they're hollow

sun or tree
they're inside

for sure
there's something
then sings
of unseen things

- sequins, pg. 7-8

* * *

the inside of head
wind blows my hat brim

never throw anything away
never keep anything

stop on a line
back up

there must be a way
to keep it all going

brain storm the hills

*

it could be
(in the space of) a second
(yes) it could be
(than) easily
in (that) space

you could drift
off (to sleep)
(on) the road
& the car
slide (through) the embankment
& roll
(into) the sea

*

"beaten at his
own game"

the wrought
words

rot on
his lips

- Vancouver - mt currie, pg. 26

* * *

in the personal
ashes of our discontent

dumpheap clues lit up

the spectacle of kind red
flares & the tongue lashes out

- failed tanka, pg. 47

* * *

elation &
deflation

(the rhythm

heave &
pull

(the disaster

stretch of
my kids' arms

winsome figures
win some thought

(the outward

on the road
the figures dance

(they dance

7:53 am

- memo for joy kogawa, pg. 57

* * *

so deeply engrossed
in the metaphysics

of life in the bus
i was so unnaturally

abstracted thinking
the general is the case

in ottawa
no kidding

& she was gesturing
toward her forehead

to pick away dead skin
just as i do too

but her hand moved
zen fashion down

she looked for frag
ments in fingernails

& i figured you'd see
if any one poet would

tho i confess to being just
a victim to circumstance

- way of the locus, for george bowering, pg. 86

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very astonished by this collection; the best in activist poetry and language poetry together if you ask me.

[Yosaggregator2]

testGoodreads