Rick Noguchi’s poems impressed me greatly, both for their clarity of scene and narrative and for their unique subject matter and humor. The poems, particularly, “The Shirt His Father Wore That Day Was Wrinkled, Slightly,” also exhibit a fine attention to word choice that suits the poem’s intent and helps to propel the narrative forward. The poem is written in the present tense which gives us a feeling of immediacy when reading the work. We see Kenji at the very moment of his actions, feel the intensity of his daydreams. We also more effectively experience his mother’s alarm at finding her favorite ironing board destroyed. Noguchi chooses words that have to do with water, the Pacific, the act of surfing. Such words as crest, pitch, purls, diving, surfaces, and others are used to reinforce the oceanic terminology of the piece. But they also serve a larger purpose than just an evocation of the ocean and a reinforcement of the action in the poem. They also draw our attention to the deeper meaning of the poem, which has to do with the imprisonment felt by perceptions and expectations and a breaking of the standard to which one feels himself or herself held.

Japanese culture has historically paid an inordinate amount of time and energy on appearances. In the past, it was not unheard of for Japanese citizens to hire strangers to mourn at their loved ones’ funerals in order to make them appear more important than they actually were. Several years ago, Harper’s Magazine reported that sales of an artificial hymen were experiencing growing popularity in Japan where betrothed women wanted their new husbands to believe they had never been sexually active. And today, a company called Office Agents hires out guests to couples who are worried that their weddings may not be as well-attended as they would like. Those who are unemployed may hire stand-ins for a boss and co-workers for jobs that are, in actuality, non-existent. What does this have to do with Noguchi’s poem? The answer, I believe, comes in the statement, “His father needs/A shirt to impress/The same co-workers/ He sees daily.” Seen in this light, a reader can begin to understand how important appearance is in the underlying meaning of the poem. Mother tries her best to keep up the code she is used to by ironing on the broken ironing board on her hands and knees. We then return to the title where we see how important the shirt is to the poem. In the title, we are not told that Kenji wants to be a surfer, nor are we alerted to the ironing board’s place in the poem. Rather, we see that the two most important elements of the poem, Father and the shirt he wore, are peripheral to the action of the poem, yet central to the meaning. This is mirrored by the first three lines in which Kenji is transported out of his own body, watching himself perform an impetuous action. 

 It is a stunt
 Kenji Takezo finds himself
 Performing unexpectedly

See how the poet pulls the reader into Kenji’s body and then immediately back out again to watch the action? See how Noguchi pulls the shirt and the father out of the poem and inserts them peripherally, only alluding to their importance? We should not be fooled into only looking at the surface actions of this piece. When Kenji himself surfaces after his stunt (When he surfaces, / Her expression is one/ He has never seen) we must also surface. The fact that there is a surface in this poem forces us to look beneath. It is not only the ironing board that breaks, it is also the cracking of a perception that neither mother nor father wants to let go of. The imagery and wording in the third stanza parallel the prison expectations can make for us. Notice how the waves of the ocean “pitch over and enclose” Kenji. Behold how Kenji is in the “chamber” and how “the walls close in.” Other words such as escape, collapsing, and silent also evoke the feeling of claustrophobia and imprisonment. Also, it is not only the ironing board that is breaking, it is the father’s image that is threatened, the breaking of a code, a desire. 

Noguchi also cautions us not to put too much emphasis either on the surface story or other people’s perceptions of us. Just as the ironing board can not hold all of Kenji’s weight, neither can the poem. “Too much weight in front,” is a cautionary line that warns us how frail the perceptions and viewpoints of others can be. The ironing board is the objective correlative for self-image. How mother handles the breaking of her ironing board says something also about her character. One gets the feeling that she will continue trying to live up to the standards to which the outside world holds her. The foreshadowing of Kenji’s incident and the title in which the shirt is still “slightly wrinkled” seems to indicate that she will not be entirely successful. Perhaps she, too, will be overcome by that wave?