I am happy to have a poem included in what is Sonic Boom's final and wonderfully colorful issue (No. 24) released last Friday. It is edited by the journal's founder Shloka Shankar along with Robin Smith and Kat Lehmann. In a message to Sonic Boom contributors, Shloka stated,
I will continue to host the Annual Vispo Contest each June on the website. The journal will re-launch after a hiatus in a new format. Our imprint, Yavanika Press, will continue to publish e-chapbooks. Infinite gratitude for being a part of the SB family.
As for that "new format", we are staying tuned.
My included poem was inspired by a scene in the film Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter . . . and Spring directed by Kim Ki-duk (2003). The poem reads as follows:
THE PRESENT ABSENCE
And the thing in the Kim Ki-duk film I recall most—
and it’s the strangest thing—is how when after
the young apprentice makes off with the
precious Buddha statue from the monastery
his aging master doesn’t even try to replace it
but instead sits facing the space the Buddha was in
and the old wall that was always behind it
