In Odawara - Poem

Pictured: Hakone Town near Odawara

In Odawara - Poem
Literary Review, Spring, 2000 by Jose Wendell Capili


When it is not raining in Odawara,
I climb a mountain path where I can see
the feudal lord's castle, chrysanthemums
unfolding autumn wind and spice,
sun beams peeping though clouds,
eaves where my lover slept once.

Over cups of wine, I sit on pebbles,
listen to bamboo flutes and a banjo
with four strings recollecting music
from the clasping of watermelon vines.
At night, I put out bonfires on rocks
by the stream shrouded in evening mist.
I am hidden among Odawara's foliage
keeping a lamentation's peculiar mind and ear.

About the Author:

Jose Wendell Capili graduated with degrees from the University of Santo Tomas, University of the Philippines Diliman, University of Tokyo, and the University of Cambridge where he received an MPhil in Social Anthropology. He received prizes, awards and fellowships for his poetry, essays and academic research from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Korea Foundation, Cambridge Overseas Trust, Carlos Palanca Foundation, Cultural Center of the Philippines, and others. He is an assistant professor of English, Creative Writing and Comparative Literature at the University of the Philippines Diliman. He is the author of A Madness of Birds, a poetry collection Short Circuit, and Multiculturalism, a book of criticism co-authored with Joseph McCallus. He is currently working on Mindoro and Beyond: A Biography of National Artist NVM Gonzalez.

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