Looking at an Abandoned Russian Themepark in Niigata, Japan
by Meg Eden
oh God of open windows,
God of new ruins,
God of all-things-green,
God of nine-year-old-
festering-dog-food.
God of Russian peasant
dancer women, God of many
phones, God of outdated
computers, God of molded
woolly mammoth models,
God of broken matryoshka dolls,
who even clothes the sparrow.
Meg Eden has been published in various magazines and is the recipient of the 2012 Henrietta Spiegel Creative Writing Award. She was a reader for the Delmarva Review. Her collections include “Your Son” (The Florence Kahn Memorial Award) and “Rotary Phones and Facebook” (Dancing Girl Press). Check out her work at: http://artemisagain.wordpress.com/
What was the origin of this poem? The origin of this poem is from the phenomenon “haikyo”. This is the Japanese word for ruins, used for abandoned buildings and their exploration. This piece was inspired by the haikyo of the Niigata Russian Village (Google it!). I love haikyo as it is a reminder that nothing physical and of the world lasts. To see a world covered in kutzu vines, decaying into the earth only to be forgotten raises in me many spiritual questions, and creates in itself an odd kind of psalm to a creator of an earth that can reclaim itself, despite our peculiar and often foolish constructions.
Check out the write-up of the journal in The Writer.
Matter Press recently released titles from Meg Boscov, Abby Frucht, Robert McBrearty, Tori Bond, Kathy Fish, and Christopher Allen. Click here.
Matter Press is now offering private flash fiction workshops and critiques of flash fiction collections here.
Submissions
Poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction/prose poetry submissions are now closed. The reading period for standard submissions opens again September 15, 2025. Submit here.
Upcoming
12/15 • Isabelle Ness
12/22 • Catherine Bai
12/29 • Stephan Viau
01/05 • Allison Blevins
01/12 • Justin Ocelot
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01/26 • Mathieu Parsy
02/02 • Robert McBrearty
02/09 • Sarah Daly
02/16 • Wayne Lee
02/23 • Terena Elizabeth Bell
03/02 • Michael Mirolla
03/09 • Nicholas Claro
03/16 • TBD
03/23 • TBD
03/30 • TBD