Recently received from Yoko Danno, The Blue Door. Thank you. In a few days, if I can squeeze a few placid moments into a crazy schedule, I hope to post my reflections on these pieces here. Thanks, Yoko. Looking forward.

Combining independently composed pieces,Yoko Danno and James C. Hopkins, through an unusual experiment that made the combination somewhat random, have succeeded in creating an intriguing sequence, a dream mosaic, which never lets go of the reader from start to finish.

—Hiroaki Sato, columnist for The Japan Times

Poetry allows us to go deeper into our minds, behind the screen of ordinary thoughts, and to let images and experiences arise as words that flow into verses.Yoko and James’ poems illuminate beautifully how our minds can relate in myriad ways to the web of life.

—Matthieu Ricard, author of Happiness, Cultivating Life’s Most Important Skill

It is hard to cite a single precedent for an artistic collaboration between a woman and a man, much less one between people from two different cultures. Together, Danno and Hopkins create poems that blend in the most organic way, contrasting and highlighting aspects of our humanity, and illuminating and delighting us with each line. The Blue Door leads to a familiar place that is unlike any other you’ll ever go.

—Christopher Stephens, senior editor, Kansai Time Out

The amulets in this grave sequence drop one by one through each other out of sight, no string of bubbles betraying where each might hang, or how deep—until as by chance the fretful mind coasts near. You take the book off the shelf and open it again. The procession resumes.

—Joe Ashby Porter, author of The Near Future

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