Bio

In Japanese, kokoro means “with open heart.” This is how Endo first came to poetry, learning to appreciate words and sounds from his adopted-by-heart Russian Jewish Uncle who urged him to become a poet while in high school. But Endo was afraid “what poetry could do to a career.” He began writing poetry when studying for the Bar Exam. While practicing law in the City Solicitor’s Office of Philadelphia in Health and Human Services, he became a member of the Etheridge Knight’s Free People’s Poetry Workshop of Philadelphia (Etheridge called him “Little Brother”). 

Endo has read his poems at multiple venues in Pennsylvania and in Delaware, including Philadelphia Free Library, Logan Circle, Holmesburg Prison, Haverford College, Kent County Library, Dover Library, Lewes Library, Rehobeth Arts League, Gallery 37. His poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, The Antioch Review, The Cortland Review, the Delaware Poetry Review, Poetry, and have been exhibited at Mellon Bank in Philadelphia, at the Biggs Museum of American Art. “Susumu, My Name” inspired jazz artist Sumi Tonooka's orchestration, “Out of Silence,” which appeared on PBS, and was also reprinted in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Endo received a Professional Grant in Poetry in 2011 from the Delaware Division of the Arts and teaches poetry and literature to older adults at the University of Delaware Osher Institute in Dover, Delaware.