Legends from Camp
The preface to this volume presents an apologia of sorts: " . . . don't let the word poetry get in your way . . . this book is full of songs, paintings, photographs, prayers, and stories--that just happen to look like poetry." Inada, who co-edited The Big Aiiieeeee! , is correct in pointing this out; the work is what one might call populist writing, which has become fashionable along with the multicultural movement with which he associates himself as an "Ethnic Minority Third World Asian American Poet." His long opening section is a meditation on the Japanese internment camps during World War II. Unfortunately, the writing is not precise enough to convey a concrete sense of that experience. Generally these pieces are unsophisticated in tone, technique and conceptual structure, although at times the author's sunny disposition comes through. "Poem for Television" offers some characteristic writing: "Welcome to my poem. / Welcome to my home. / This is my song, my story,/ this is my tell-a-vision / to you . . . " Derivative of Whitman, but neither inventive nor sonorous, the writing is often intended for "community performance" in which music and dancing might bolster it.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.