Biography: Hamish Withers is a New Zealander living in Japan. He began writing poetry in Japan after attending a poetry meeting there. As a teenager, Hamish liked the poetry of the First World War poets, John Mc Crae, Rupert Brooke, Siegfried Sassoon, and Wilfred Owen. Later as an adult, he would come to like the poetry of the New Zealand poets, James K. Baxter and Sam Hunt. He is also a great admirer of the Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy, and the American poets, Langston Hughes, Charles Bukowski, Josephine Miles, and Robert Frost, and the Japanese poets, Basho, Issa, and Shiki. Hamish Withers tends to write about things he sees in Japan and about people he has met there. He generally writes in a direct, short, prose style. His poems often pose questions. Hamish would like to thank Japan for inspiring him and the poets he has read and heard for enriching his life.