酷我-北美枫

[ericcoliu]

It’s All about Maple


The Maple Seal

You are one of the countless fallen maple leaves,
As red as a bloodstain.
You are the sorrow sealed in the heart of an outsider
Wandering along the sidewalk
And blaming the autumn wind.


A Wind-Driven Maple Leaf

Today, here in Ajax, is cold, cloudy, and windy.

I sit in front of my desk, looking out the window. I see something floating along the sidewalk near my house. It is a palm-sized, dry maple leaf.

Sometimes the wind carries it in a circle around the maple tree in my front lawn. At one moment, the fierce wind whips it about so violently, without any warning, sends it soaring skyward, and then lets it fall helplessly down to the ground. It is like a re-enacted scene of the human fall from grace.

I sit quietly, doing nothing. The wind blows again and the dry leaf is carried away.


Moving in the Wind

On an autumn afternoon, Eric and Chan walked by a big maple tree. Eric looked at some branches of it moving in the wind, and asked, "Chan, is it the branches that are moving, or the wind?" Without even looking to where Eric was pointing, Chan smiled and said, "That which is moving is neither the branches nor the wind, it is your heart and mind."


The Maple Tree in My Garden

All the leaves have fallen
And let go the riches of the season.
A flock of geese fly leisurely by.
We never tire of looking at each other –
The maple tree and I.


At the Gun-Mouth of Time*

Here on the front lawn before sunset
Near the maple tree ripped of its leaves
I do what the immigrants do
What the unemployed do
I cultivate hope at the gun-mouth of time

*This is a rewrite of one of Mahmoud Darwish’s poems that are known for telling Palestinian stories with sorrow, pain, and hope and that are a tribute to the Palestinian struggle and resistance.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

It’s All about Maple


The Maple Seal

You are one of the countless fallen maple leaves,
As red as a bloodstain.
You are the sorrow sealed in the heart of an outsider
Wandering along the sidewalk
And blaming the autumn wind.


A Wind-Driven Maple Leaf

Today, here in Ajax, is cold, cloudy, and windy.

I sit in front of my desk, looking out the window. I see something floating along the sidewalk near my house. It is a palm-sized, dry maple leaf.

Sometimes the wind carries it in a circle around the maple tree in my front lawn. At one moment, the fierce wind whips it about so violently, without any warning, sends it soaring skyward, and then lets it fall helplessly down to the ground. It is like a re-enacted scene of the human fall from grace.

I sit quietly, doing nothing. The wind blows again and the dry leaf is carried away.


Moving in the Wind

On an autumn afternoon, Eric and Chan walked by a big maple tree. Eric looked at some branches of it moving in the wind, and asked, "Chan, is it the branches that are moving, or the wind?" Without even looking to where Eric was pointing, Chan smiled and said, "That which is moving is neither the branches nor the wind, it is your heart and mind."


The Maple Tree in My Garden

All the leaves have fallen
And let go the riches of the season.
A flock of geese fly leisurely by.
We never tire of looking at each other –
The maple tree and I.


At the Gun-Mouth of Time*

Here on the front lawn before sunset
Near the maple tree ripped of its leaves
I do what the immigrants do
What the unemployed do
I cultivate hope at the gun-mouth of time

*This is a rewrite of one of Mahmoud Darwish’s poems that are known for telling Palestinian stories with sorrow, pain, and hope and that are a tribute to the Palestinian struggle and resistance.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[ericcoliu]

Below is a maple poem, which cheers me up.

The Maple by Bob Hicok

The Maple

is a system of posture for wood.
A way of not falling down
for twigs that happens
to benefit birds. I don't know.
I'm staring at a tree,
at yellow leaves
threshed by wind and want you
reading this to be staring
at the same tree. I could
cut it down and laminate it
or ask you to live with me
on the stairs with the window
keeping an eye on the maple
but I think your real life
would miss you. The story
here is that all morning
I've thought of the statement
that art is about loneliness
while watching golden leaves
become unhinged.
By ones or in bunches
they tumble and hang
for a moment like a dress
in the dryer.
At the laundromat
you've seen the arms
thrown out to catch the shirt
flying the other way.
Just as you've stood
at the bottom of a gray sky
in a pile of leaves
trying to lick them
back into place.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

Below is a maple poem, which cheers me up.

The Maple by Bob Hicok

The Maple

is a system of posture for wood.
A way of not falling down
for twigs that happens
to benefit birds. I don't know.
I'm staring at a tree,
at yellow leaves
threshed by wind and want you
reading this to be staring
at the same tree. I could
cut it down and laminate it
or ask you to live with me
on the stairs with the window
keeping an eye on the maple
but I think your real life
would miss you. The story
here is that all morning
I've thought of the statement
that art is about loneliness
while watching golden leaves
become unhinged.
By ones or in bunches
they tumble and hang
for a moment like a dress
in the dryer.
At the laundromat
you've seen the arms
thrown out to catch the shirt
flying the other way.
Just as you've stood
at the bottom of a gray sky
in a pile of leaves
trying to lick them
back into place.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[anna]

We never tire of looking at each other –
The maple tree and I.


---让我想起了..坐看敬亭山(李白)

众鸟高飞尽，

孤云独去闲。

相看两不厌，

只有敬亭山。
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[[星子安娜]]

We never tire of looking at each other –
The maple tree and I.


---让我想起了..坐看敬亭山(李白)

众鸟高飞尽，

孤云独去闲。

相看两不厌，

只有敬亭山。
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[ericcoliu]

You have a particularly sharp eye for reading of my poem.

For a person who is non-English speaking and daring to write in English, he should be shameless and proud to be a nomad, who pays no attention the laws of literary property.

You are a nomad,
Disobeying all the laws of property.
You wander across different lands
Belonging to someone else.
You poach your way across field
Pilfering the wealths of Greece and China.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

You have a particularly sharp eye for reading of my poem.

For a person who is non-English speaking and daring to write in English, he should be shameless and proud to be a nomad, who pays no attention the laws of literary property.

You are a nomad,
Disobeying all the laws of property.
You wander across different lands
Belonging to someone else.
You poach your way across field
Pilfering the wealths of Greece and China.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[Champagne]

In A Journal Entry, October 22, 2003, accessed at http://coviews.com/viewtopic.php?t=30745

[[Champagne]]

In A Journal Entry, October 22, 2003, accessed at http://coviews.com/viewtopic.php?t=30745