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Following the March 2011 earthquake, Jon Mitchell traveled to tsunami-hit Tohoku to report on international relief operations. 

The magnitude-9 tremor also seems to have scared the poetic muse back into him. His poetry booklet about the disaster, March and After, was published to critical acclaim - reviews here and here - leading one British newspaper to dub him "Bard of a Broken Country". ​

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poodle

we would not look twice
if this girl
with her dog walked past
in a tokyo park
but here
among this mud
rolled cars broke homes
she looks so normal
out of place
that she has brought
to a complete stand still
the work of ten marines
volunteers a squad of japanese soldiers
all watch
the poodle
squat and shudder
what’s
one more ounce
in this shit
soaked town
we must all be
thinking the same
because when
the girl opens her bag
unfolds a tissue
wraps the turd as carefully
as a slice of wedding cake
splashes water from a bottle
we burst
into such stomach-creasing laughter
that it all begins
to hurt

march and after
- poems from tsunami country -
                                                          

march and after - poems from tsunami country - chronicles life in Japan following the 3.11 earthquake. From the terror of hourly aftershocks and scenes of hardened yakuza fleeing Tokyo, Jon Mitchell takes the reader through Tohoku’s devastation to the 400-year old shrine once believed to prevent such catastrophes.

Among this untold destruction, these poems also explore a side to the disaster rarely seen. As radiation scares and rolling black-outs buffeted the nation, a remarkable sense of solidarity emerged that propelled tens of thousands of ordinary people to volunteer in the heart of the hardest-hit areas.

Without a doubt, the March 11th earthquake was one of the worst moments in Japanese history. But, as the poems in march and after show, it was also a time that brought out the very best in many people. 

Paperback / 40 pages / 1000yen
100% sales to NPO Peace Boat's ongoing relief efforts in Tohoku

Click here to order the paper version
and here for the e-book.

In a spare, deceptively simple style reminiscent of Raymond Carver, this slim chapbook plays out the universal and poignant story of survival, endurance and redemption. Of human contact. And it will make you laugh. What more could you ask.
                                                                Sabotage Reviews, November 2011

At its heart, "March and After" tells a contradictory tale of apologetic survival and downward redemption — the fragile and soaring possibilities of man.
                                                                      The Japan Times, October 2011

In a nation where poetry is revered, a Welsh writer has found a loyal following capturing the mood of panic-stricken Japan in the wake of the tsunami.
                                                                     Wales on Sunday, March 2011

Poetry is usually a much longer, slower conversation than the momentary urgency of graffiti or journalism, though there are exceptions – Jon Mitchell, a Welsh poet living in Japan, responds here to the recent earthquake, blurring the lines between poetry, the diary and reportage.
                                                                         Poetry Wales, July 2011

at the shrine to settle tremors, ibaraki

at the shrine

to settle tremors

the unslept man

lines up with all the others
to say a prayer

at the stone
supposed to stop the ground from shaking



while the local housewives bow

and clap

and thank the gods for letting
their town off
lightly the man says

maybe it protected here too much
you know
and that’s why everywhere else
was so destroyed

the housewives stay silent
as an elevator fart the man shrugs

plays his comment as a throw

away joke
but when the others leave

he stays a moment

spits twice quickly

on the stone
and
curses it for abandoning
miyagi

fukushima

his hometown
to the waves

All sales go to Peace Boat's ongoing relief efforts in the worst hit areas.