Doug Barrett
DOUG BARRETT served in the Japan West Mission. He holds a PhD in English literature from the University of Washington and has taught at Sierra Nevada College, Deep Springs College, and Western Nevada College. He has also been a camp counselor, wrangler, bank courier, retail clerk, postal worker, census worker, and academic labor organizer. His poetry has appeared in Avocet, Canary, Weber: The Contemporary West, and elsewhere. He currently resides in Maine.
Articles
Momiji
Recall, in your mind’s eye, this sight: two white-shirted figures
exploring the October hills above Nagasaki. enjoying the freedom
to talk unencumbered. “Sometimes,” you said,
“I think nature has a way of playing Bach to itself.”
A Little Death
I was fasting that day when we went out into the farmlands
around Nagasaki, looking up referrals. After hours of walking,
we found ourselves on a ridge looking down on rice fields
and a tiny village
Crossing Over
Sun-dappled redwood mist
bandtails flush, wrentits call through fiery green walls.
Chattering hikers returning from the still-inaudible sea
blindly pass a doe in the ferns.