That Blue Trickster Time

Amy Uyematsu’s final collection, That Blue Trickster Time,  is a powerful affirmation of Asian Americans during a global pandemic  in which anti-Asian racism is at an all-time high. She revisits her family’s history during the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans. Her book is also a salute to older women – as mothers and  warriors, rebels and ancient goddesses. While addressing serious social  and political issues, Uyematsu’s poems are also rooted in a deep reverence for nature and a spiritual growth that comes with aging. The  anger of her youthful protest days is still there, but here she can  affirm this world of conflict and beauty as she speaks to the radiance  of the ordinary, whether her love of stones and pine trees or her  fascination with numbers and folk art. These are ferocious poems which celebrate being an older woman of color.  Paper: 120 pp.