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Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma

author, poet, teacher, and performer

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    • 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
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“Senior Year”

April 8, 2021

I was honored to have a story published in the Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber this week as part of the Literary Project of Open Space for Arts and Community and their !Attention! Artists at Work program. The theme for the project was “Close to Home.”

SENIOR YEAR
By Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma

Janelle stared at the computer screen with dread. Her granddaughter had talked her through using Room or Boom or whatever it was called more times than she could count, but getting ready to do it always made her feel nervous. “Just follow your list,” she heard Gweneth saying. Now that Gweneth was almost done with college, she called herself Gwen, but Janelle still thought of her as Gweneth. Gweneth told her it was fine, “You have grandmother’s rights,” but Janelle still wanted to honor her wishes.

Outside the window she saw Barbara, her closest neighbor, taking out the garbage with her purple-pink mask. At least when she talked on her computer Janelle didn’t have to wear a mask. How else could she make herself understood?

Gweneth’s helpful list, which Janelle had taped to the tabletop beside her large mouse, said the next thing to do was to click the link in her email. She’d managed to find the link and clicked the left button on her mouse with her right index finger, watching the screens open and close. Join with video? Yes. Join with audio? Yes. But when Gweneth appeared, her screen looked different than last time.

“Grandma,” Gweneth said, “can you hear me?” She seemed to be standing outside. Janelle had expected to see Gweneth’s bedroom, since she was home from college for the month.

“Loud and clear, my dear,” she answered.

“Oh good,” said Gweneth.

“But Gwen, for some reason, your picture looks different. There are these bars on both sides of your face. Do I need to adjust something?”

“Oh, that’s fine, I’m on my cell phone, Grandma.”

“You can use Joom on your cell phone?”

“Yes, Grandma, you can use Zoom on a cell phone. I’ll show you sometime.”

“Zoom, yes, of course.” Janelle picked up her pencil to write down the name, then saw that she’d written it already. Why hadn’t she remembered to look? Maybe she should write the letters a little darker.

“Grandma,” Gweneth said, “I have a surprise for you.”

Actually it wasn’t completely a surprise. During their last “Grandma Tea,” Gweneth had mentioned she might have a surprise for her next time. Still, Janelle felt a little rush of anticipation, as if she herself were the granddaughter, not Gwen.

“Just talking to you is a surprise, my dear. I’m still amazed I can get this thing to work.”

“This is a bigger surprise than that. Look out your front window, Grandma.”

“The window?” She looked out again and instead of Barbara with her mask she saw Gweneth, standing with her phone. “Gweneth! What are you doing out there?”

“Well,” she said, her voice coming from inside and outside, “I can attend class from anywhere now, so I quarantined myself and got myself tested. Would you mind some company for a time?”

And Janelle stood from her chair unable even to say, “No, not at all, come in.”


Read the story in the Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber.

Open Space for Arts and Community designed !Attention! Artists at Work to fund artists financially impacted by COVID-19 to create public art. The entire Literary Project collection will soon be available online for free.

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“Improvisation” from The Safety of Edges

April 2, 2021

A poem about meeting the music of each moment.

IMPROVISATION

only happens
                        when it happens

though years may have passed
       so what happens
might happen

the musician who gets it right
       gets it right
              right now

       don’t wait
when it happens
       happen

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

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“Magnolias Have Large Petals” from the Tamil poet Avvaiyar | மடல்பெரிது தாழை

March 29, 2021

A poem about size and true strength by the 12th century Tamil woman, poet, and saint Avvaiyar. From her collection, “The Word that Endures.”

Magnolias have large petals; honeysuckles, a sweet fragrance.
Don’t judge a man small by his body.
                                                             The sea is vast
Yet cannot clean hands. Beside it, the little spring
Yields sweet water.

Moothurai 12, “Madal perithu thazhai.”

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

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“Pocket Watch” from The Safety of Edges

March 19, 2021

A poem about gratitude and the passage of time.

POCKET WATCH

Each day when I remember
I wind the old watch
hanging from its stand
where it watches my desk

you told me you liked it
Grandpa remembered
take it you should have it
Lloyd fixed it last year
it runs well enough for its age

and it does
                     it stands
at the edge of my mornings
running and still

                              if I listen
I can hear
                  what he told me
about life
                  time passes
faster than you think

remembering his voice
I take the old watch
wind it renew it set it
on its stand

                      and dare
to enjoy the time
that I have that I know
won’t last forever

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

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“Between the King and the Careful Poet,” from the Tamil poet Avvaiyar | மன்னனும் மாசறக் கற்றோனும்

March 12, 2021

A poem about poetry and power by the 12th century Tamil woman, poet, and saint Avvaiyar. From her collection, “The Word that Endures.”

Between the king and the careful poet, the poet
Has greater glory.
                              Apart from his kingdom
A king has nothing. Every place a poet goes—
Praise.

Moothurai 26, “Mannanum maasara kattronum.”

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

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THE SONG AND THE SILENCE: TALKING WITH SHIN YU PAI

March 5, 2021

Shin Yu Pai: ENSO

I recently had a wonderful, far-reaching conversation with my friend, the poet, artist, speaker, and curator Shin Yu Pai. Our talk explored embodiment, mothering, teachers, and the practice of devotion, and was published today in The Rumpus:

https://therumpus.net/2021/03/the-rumpus-interview-with-shin-yu-pai/

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What is Cascadian Zen? A Talk at Seattle University

January 24, 2021

Talk delivered on February 15, 2020. Organized loosely around exploring the relationship between the Cascadian bioregion as it intersects with Zen ideas, practices, and aesthetics, Seattle University hosted a diverse group of writers interested in exploring the question of “What is Cascadian Zen?” through their poetic and/or philosophical writing.

Thomas on Words and Wonder
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“When doing good to a man,” a poem from the Tamil poet Avvaiyar

November 23, 2020

A poem about gratitude and transformation by the 12th century Tamil woman, poet, and saint Avvaiyar. From her collection, “The Word that Endures.”

When doing good to a man, do not ask
If he’ll do good.
                          Tall-standing coconut palms,
Tireless and growing, take water at their roots
And return it, sweet, from above.

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

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