As if done with sumi ink, these verses by John Wilson are meditative responses to the landscapes of great classical masters. Each poem faces a reproduction of a work by an artist of mythic stature, among them Sesshu, Sesson, Buson, Musashi, Sengai, Shih K'o, Korin, Ku K'ai-chih, Kusumi Morikage, Taiga, and Kung K'ai. The succinct loveliness of the poems seems often as acute as the verses of Li Po and Tu Fu.
John Wilson studied Japanese for four years and has lived in Japan. He teaches Asian and Western literature in the College of Creative Studies at UCSB. He has published his poems in anthologies and journals, and has translated Smoke in the Mountain Valley by Yoshiko Shigekane.
