John J. Trause

There are days where one realizes that one must make a major decision in one’s life, and often this decision comes with only the briefest of musings but has the most profound consequences. In late June 2009 I had such a decision to make. Coincidentally I received as a gift on this same day a book of ukiyo-e from an admirer. Although I had other books on the subject and long enjoyed the prints and paintings of the Japanese masters, something struck me when reading this book that was already familiar, but not as remarkable as it seemed to me on this day. I reread the classic account of Katsushika Hokusai’s life, how he was the mirror polisher in his father’s mirror-making workshop and left home to become a librarian and ultimately the famed artist we know him as centuries later. Also coincidently on this same day I received in the mail a copy of the May 2009 (anno 22, n. 43) issue of the international avant-garde art and literary journal Offerta Speciale, published in Turin, Italy. This issue contained a poem I had submitted to Carla Bertola, the publisher and editor, and without hearing anything in a number of months since the submission I found my poem published in this issue that I was holding. Also in this issue I saw Arrigo Lora-Totino’s visual poem “virtù specchiata” that was printed as a mirror image. On the verge of a decision I was about to make I knew I had to pay homage to Katsushika Hokusai with my own poem, which is presented here for the first time and which stands as a reminder of the beginning of a journey begun that day.