First Harvest: Collected Poems, 2003-2013

First Harvest is the culmination of ten years of work, presenting verses that were madly scribbled down in cafes during lunch breaks, from the flashing windows of commuter trains, or while walking the streets of Tokyo at midnight.

In this, his first collection of poetry, poet Mat Kondo offers us a peek into the mind of a man deeply in love with the world and equally troubled by the existing state of affairs. Using his radical new style—neo-beat, influenced by poets ranging from Gregory Corso to the romantic poetry of Shelley to Japanese haiku poets such as Basho—he highlights the current ‘de-progress of the spirit’ propagated by the pursuit of greed. Each poem presents a sketch of the day-to-day sadness, despair, and ultimate beauty of mankind in the twenty-first century—a species at a crossroads.

The Antidote

Harbingers of deception,
the word virus spreads
like rabid carrier pigeons.

But there is an antidote.
Poetry,
betrothed to truth,
can deliver seeds
of great exploding beauty
and illumination.

All you have to do
is breathe deep,
polish your eyes,
and let your mind roam.