On July 20th, the West Florida Literary Federation‘s project Life in the Time of Corona published another poem of mine (they previously published my poem “The Earth Lives On,” as well as my narrative essay “Sidewalk Chalk“), this piece titled “Eyes.” Please go read the poem at Life in the Time of Corona‘s site!

“Eyes” is a poem consisting of two inverted dodoitsu and concerning the facelessness constant mask-wearing gives us. Dodoitsu is a Japanese form of poetry — developed toward the end of Japan’s Edo period, the final era of traditional Japan — that was inspired by folk songs and concerned subjects of love, work, and humor. The form seems both a relevant and a helpful one these days, with two stanzas for two eyes and inverted because the world certainly seems turned upside down right now!

To read more about dodoitsu, you may start with Poetry Soup’s page about the form.