On a recent visit to the Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, MA), I came across this striking figure on display.

The work alone stirred something within me, but after I read up on his story, I began drafting in earnest. The world being the terribly small place that it is, a week later some of my students gave a presentation on a short story wherein the mythos behind this statue is a key component.

So in a way this poem is three-times ekphrastic: the mythos, the statue, the modern short story.

In any event, the good people at The Ekphrastic Review have seen fit to publish my poem Sai no Kawara.