Ukiyo-e (浮世絵), by Charles Tarlton

Poetry, chapbook, 32 pages, from Bottlecap Features. This is a collection of ekphrastic poems on examples of Japanese Ukiyo-e (colored woodblock prints).  These are a traditional art form in Japan much as painting on canvas has been traditional in the West.   The prints were chosen here to represent the range of Ukiyo’s traditional subjects, everything from boudoir scenes, to cityscapes, dramatic characters, art works, fantasies, Mount Fuji,  and paintings which had great influence on Impressionism in Europe and the U.S. The greatest and most famous of Japan’s writers and artists participated in the art of Ukiyo-e. Charles Tarlton lives on the shore in Connecticut with his wife, Ann Knickerbocker, and their two standard poodles, Nikki and Jesse.  His poems have appeared in periodicals here and in the United Kingdom and in six full-length collections and several chapbooks and pamphlets.