Poem: Dear Isamu Noguchi

MIXED ASIAN MEDIA - JUNE 9, 2021

By Yoshika Wason

This poem is about my parasocial relationship with Isamu Noguchi, a mixed Japanese American sculptor, architect, and designer. Noguchi was also an activist who spoke out against the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II and even voluntarily lived in a "camp," although his efforts did not gain much traction, largely due to his outsider identity as a mixed person.

Dear Isamu Noguchi

What I like about you is that you walked

into Poston Prison and said I know 

what this place needs: a playground, 

a garden, a cemetery. I know 

you grew to resent Arizona dust

but Isamu, Isamu, we can still 

sculpt our way out of this reality.

What I’m trying to say is that today

I looked up from my phone and I was in 

Sapporo where I saw a little boy 

who looked like us running in a playground 

and he was free because he lived in a world

far from your Arizona and my

America, where all the fences and walls 

and cages are replaced with playgrounds 

and sculptures   and   light.

Yoshika Wason is a teacher and writer. Her works have appeared in Yes Poetry, Ghost City Review, Ricepaper Magazine, and others. Yoshika is from Bridgeport, Connecticut and currently calls Boston home. Learn more at www.yoshikawason.com.