The solitude of losing yourself in techno, pink-tiled facades and rooftops as far as the eye can see, nocturnal intimacy and secret pockets of drug use — this is the lonely underbelly of Tokyo that Joy Waller puts into words in "Pause :: Hearbeat."
It's the writer's first book, a printed collection of 41 poems written over the past five years. Each one is an exploration into life lived in the moments that exist between the isolation felt when you're alone in your apartment or intimate moments with other lonely souls, all within the context of city life.
The "new to Japan" angle makes for an interesting element in Waller's work, which features such uniquely Japanese images of a love hotel during an earthquake or eating sushi off a chipped blue plate to name a few. These are embedded in more universal themes of addiction, polarization and nothingness.