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Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma

author, poet, teacher, and performer

  • About
  • Books
    • THE KURAL: Tiruvalluvar’s Tirukkural
    • The Safety of Edges
    • Give, Eat, and Live: Poems of Avvaiyar
    • Body and Earth
    • A Feast for the Tongue
    • Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo
    • Other Writings
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Kural Videos

Talks & Presentations

The Safety of Edges

“Authority” from The Safety of Edges

October 8, 2021

A poem about trusting our senses.

“Authority,” by Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma
THE SAFETY OF EDGES
Marrowstone Press, Seattle

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“What We Know: A Handful of Dirt” from Avvaiyar’s Thani Padal | கற்றது கைம்மண்ணளவு

September 30, 2021

Here’s a poem about knowledge, humility, and always continuing to learn, from the 12th century Tamil woman, poet, and saint Avvaiyar.

What we know: a handful of dirt. What we don’t:
The width of the world. The goddess of learning
Keeps learning.
                          So, poets, don’t bet and talk big.
The body of an ant, too, is eight spans.

“Katrathu kaiman alavu.”

Translated from the Tamil by Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma
GIVE, EAT, AND LIFE: POEMS OF AVVAIYAR
Red Hen Press, Los Angeles

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“Change of Plans” from The Safety of Edges

August 11, 2021

A poem about dwellings and stories.

CHANGE OF PLANS

My father and his father
built a shed by our house
its roof at an angle complete
with an attic its own little door
a square with an X

they’d almost finished it
when the county came by
to say the new building
couldn’t be where they built it
though no one in the office
had said it to my father
when he went there
two weeks before

but Grandpa was undaunted
and they set it on some pipes
rolling it with our neighbors
to the corner of the yard

where already someone else
had cut down the hedge
to make room for the shed
the great ship with barn doors
sailing the back yard the narrow
green sea then

coming to rest
in the newly cleared clearing
no longer at home at the edge
of our house but at least
still standing still a shed
in our yard

                     where it stands
to this day though we moved
somewhere else and no one there
now knows the story

“Change of Plans,” by Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma
THE SAFETY OF EDGES
Marrowstone Press, Seattle

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“Don’t Think to Conquer” from Avvaiyar’s Moothurai | அடக்கம் உடையார் அறிவிலர் என்றெண்ணி

June 28, 2021

A poem about restraint, patience, and surprise, from the 12th century Tamil woman, poet, and saint Avvaiyar.

Don’t think to conquer the one who holds back,
Concluding he must lack sense.
                                                     Perched on the sluicegate
Letting the running fish run, the white crane
Waits for the catch.

Moothurai 16, “Adakkam udayar arivilar.”

Translated from the Tamil by Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma
GIVE, EAT, AND LIFE: POEMS OF AVVAIYAR
Red Hen Press, Los Angeles

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“Recess” from The Safety of Edges

June 10, 2021

A poem about sensing beyond what people say.

“Recess,” by Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma
THE SAFETY OF EDGES
Marrowstone Press, Seattle

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