Acclaimed Japanese poet Yorifumi Yaguchi has turned his writing attention to telling what he experienced as a child growing up on the island of Honshu in the late 1930s and '40s. When life became incomprehensible, Yaguchi put his experiences into poems. His audience grew beyond Japan-and included Robert Bly, Denise Levertov, and William Stafford, who became his friends. Recognized in Japan as a major poet and also as an outspoken advocate for peace, Yaguchi here uses his extraordinary voice to tell his life story in prose and poetry.