Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma

author, poet, teacher, and performer

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Lyric World: Shin Yu Pai with Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma and Melanie Noel

Shin Yu Pai

How can poetry expand our understanding of civic life? Poet and former Town Hall Artist-In-Residence Shin Yu Pai invites us to the first of her Lyric World discussions, exploring the role of poetry as it stokes our curiosity and gives voice and attention to the human experience.

Joining in conversation with Seattle-based poet Melanie Noel, Pruiksma illuminates the ways that different languages alternately obscure or reveal truth. Together they ask us to suspend our judgement and embrace the not-knowing that defines these art forms.

Before their discussion, experience a performance by kora player and griot-trained jeli Ibrahim Arsalan. In West African society, the jeli preserved ancient stories and traditions through song, throughout the generations. They are believed to have deep connections to spiritual, social, and political powers.

Lyric World: Conversations with Contemporary Poets

Shin Yu Pai
Shin Yu Pai

I’m deeply honored to help inaugurate Lyric World: Conversations with Contemporary Poets, a new event series sponsored by Town Hall and curated by Shin Yu Pai.

On January 30, 2020, I’ll be reading and speaking about poetry and wonder. Jali Ibrahim Arsalan will also perform West African kora music and the poet Melanie Noel will facilitate an on-stage conversation.

Learn More and Buy Tickets

Kai Curry of the Northwest Asian Weekly recently featured the series in an article:

“Town Hall Seattle and KUOW series highlights AAPI poets”

The Seattle Review of Books also featured the event on their website:

Literary Event of the Week: Lyric World at Town Hall Seattle

And Paul Nelson of Seattle Poetics LAB recently interviewed me and curator Shin Yu Pai. You can read the interview in the South Seattle Emerald:

Shin Yu Pai’s Poetry Series Gets a Dose of Magic With Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma

You can watch a video of the interview here:

Poetry and Magic for the Seattle City Council

“Counsel,” composed for the Seattle City Council as part of Nick Licata’s “Words’ Worth” program.

COUNSEL
by Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma

How do we build a city, a safe refuge
for many people, a place of many places
where many people wish to dwell,

when the many may have many
ideas about the city, the people, and the places
the place might become?
                                          So many that,
at times, it can tear them apart, pulling at
the fibers
till the fibers start to fray, till what
had felt whole and truthfully woven
begins to look ragged, and not just
around the edges, where the words that once carried
music in their meaning have ceased to carry
anything at all.

                          What then
can we do to bring it back together, to bind
the many pieces without pieces
feeling bound?
                         In ancient Tamil Nadu, “Land
of Tamil,” the great kings of three kingdoms
held council with poets, learned men and women
who advised them in song, calling them
on their errors, praising them
for their hearts, teaching them
always the root of all art:
the courage to listen and then act.

So listen, listen, listen
to the people, to their pains
and to their plans, and to the voice great
within us, rising up and rising out, showing us
the next step, the next way, the next word,

the next wonder that will make
the poem once again, piecing the many pieces
into more than just many, where everyone
is welcome, where everyone
is heard, where everyone finds shelter
in the shelter we make
from the words that weave us together.