 | |
| Author | Brandon Shimoda |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Litmus Press |
| Pages | 92 |
| ISBN | 978-1-933959-13-9 |
| Preceded by | The Girl Without Arms |
| Followed by | Portuguese |
O Bon is a 2011 poetry collection by Brandon Shimoda, published by Litmus Press. It is his third book of poetry. [1]
A Japanese American, Shimoda's family members experienced incarceration during World War II; many of his ancestors suffered from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As such, many of the book's poems concern Shimoda's reflections on grief faced by the violence of the twentieth century. Some of the poem's modes include lyric poetry and elegy.
The book's title partially refers to Obon, a Buddhist practice of honoring ancestors through various practices including the Bon Odori dance.
Boston Review observed Shimoda's relationship to various sacred forms—including elegy, lyric, and invocation—with his own familial loss, grief, and mourning. The reviewer concluded: "In short, O Bon is a plaintive, beautifully written collection. Shimoda offers readers a graceful synthesis of form and content, of autobiography and history, and of the personal and the divine." [2]
CutBank similarly found that "Within this book, history laces together with dreams of history, life with projected lives, death with what happens after, sensory perception with extra-sense." The reviewer stated that the book's poetry was inextricable from the broader history of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the subsequent Obon rituals concerning them. However, the reviewer resisted the impulse to romanticize Shimoda's grief, instead paying more attention to the movement of Shimoda's language. [3]
The Academy of American Poets called the poems "spare, gorgeously crafted ... within and out of chilling landscapes", specifically observing Shimoda's relationship between his poetics and the broader history of both the atomics bombs and of the internment of Japanese Americans. [4]
Modern lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person. The term for both modern lyric poetry and modern song lyrics derives from a form of Ancient Greek literature, the Greek lyric, which was defined by its musical accompaniment, usually on an instrument known as a kithara, a seven-stringed lyre. These three are not equivalent, though song lyrics are often in the lyric mode and Ancient Greek lyric poetry was principally chanted verse.
Tamiki Hara was a Japanese writer and survivor of the bombing of Hiroshima, known for his works in the atomic bomb literature genre.
Sadako Sasaki was a Japanese girl who became a victim of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States. She was two years of age when the bombs were dropped and was severely irradiated. She survived for another ten years, becoming one of the most widely known hibakusha—a Japanese term meaning "bomb-affected person". She is remembered through the story of the more than one thousand origami cranes she folded before her death. She died at the age of 12 on October 25, 1955, at the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital.
Hibakusha is a word of Japanese origin generally designating the people affected by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States at the end of World War II.
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Peter Gizzi is an American poet, essayist, editor and teacher. He attended New York University, Brown University and the State University of New York at Buffalo.
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Substantial debate exists over the ethical, legal, and military aspects of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 August and 9 August 1945 respectively at the close of the Pacific War theater of World War II (1939–45).
Sadako Kurihara was a Japanese poet who lived in Hiroshima and survived the atomic bombing during World War II. She is best known for her poem Umashimenkana.
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Sankichi Tōge, born Mitsuyoshi Tōge, was a Japanese poet, activist, and survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. He is best known for his collection of poems Genbaku Shishu, published in 1951.
Nagasaki is an oratorio composed by Soviet composer Alfred Schnittke in 1958, at the age of 25. It was Schnittke's graduation composition in the Moscow Conservatory, and the topic was suggested by his teacher Evgeny Golubev.
Brandon Shimoda is an American poet. He is the author of several poetry collections, including O Bon and Evening Oracle, as well as the memoir The Grave on the Wall. A professor at Colorado College, Shimoda is also the creator of the Hiroshima Library.
Evening Oracle is a 2015 poetry collection by Brandon Shimoda, published by Letter Machine Editions. It won the William Carlos Williams Award.
The Grave on the Wall is a 2019 memoir by Brandon Shimoda, published by City Lights. It won the PEN Open Book Award.
Hydra Medusa is a 2023 poetry collection by Brandon Shimoda, published by Nightboat Books.