American poet Arthur Binard is alert to the world around him. His interests range from trees and insects to bicycles, kotatsu (heater tables) and nuclear energy.
Binard writes poems in Japanese — which is not his mother tongue — as well as in English, translates poems from Japanese into English, and even writes haiku and tanka, always trying to sharpen his five senses.
After living and working in Japan for over two decades, he is entirely bilingual. He says it is still challenging for him to express his thoughts through poems — whether it be in English or in Japanese.