酷我-北美枫

[anna]

The following list will be updated accordingly.

1. George Elliott Clarke's sonnet
2. Claudia Radmore's tanka
3.Lynn Tait's haiku
4.Kate Roger's Foreign Skin
5. GUANYIN LAMP by Kateri Lanthier
6. For Yuan Mei by John Oughton
7. John B. Lee's "Being Human"
8. Richard Greene's Beside the Funeral Home
9. Bunny Iskov's Asian Expressionism
10.Bruce Meyer poem about Li Po
11.
12.



---Some were from our last year's Chinese and Canadian Poets reading event.

http://lovingsister.com/news_detail/index.php?news_id=29971
_________________
---------------------

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]]

The following list will be updated accordingly.

1. George Elliott Clarke's sonnet
2. Claudia Radmore's tanka
3.Lynn Tait's haiku
4.Kate Roger's Foreign Skin
5. GUANYIN LAMP by Kateri Lanthier
6. For Yuan Mei by John Oughton
7. John B. Lee's "Being Human"
8. Richard Greene's Beside the Funeral Home
9. Bunny Iskov's Asian Expressionism
10.Bruce Meyer poem about Li Po
11.
12.



---Some were from our last year's Chinese and Canadian Poets reading event.

http://lovingsister.com/news_detail/index.php?news_id=29971
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

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

http://annapoetry.com

[anna]

George Elliott Clarke:Canada’s new Parliamentary Poet Laureate

Mao Inks "The People's Liberation Army Captures Nanking"

--a lu shih
April 1949


Seizing the mountain, this crazy, jagged
Zigzag of crags, snow cliffs, cleft, skittish rocks
Lunging toward the moon's white gravity,
I imagine dragons' wings brush my head.
I push vertically, hear the sky break,
Level the old order of things.
Below, the State totters. My million troops,
Their hands blood-baptized, their heads flame-haloed,
Scribe fresh history with spent shells and shouts.
The city unscrolls, awaits our crimson
Calligraphy, brush-stroke and sword-stroke.
Look! Snow hammers earth with leaden softness....
Ah, this world's mutable: mountains become coral reefs.
_________________
---------------------

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]]

George Elliott Clarke:Canada’s new Parliamentary Poet Laureate

Mao Inks "The People's Liberation Army Captures Nanking"

--a lu shih
April 1949


Seizing the mountain, this crazy, jagged
Zigzag of crags, snow cliffs, cleft, skittish rocks
Lunging toward the moon's white gravity,
I imagine dragons' wings brush my head.
I push vertically, hear the sky break,
Level the old order of things.
Below, the State totters. My million troops,
Their hands blood-baptized, their heads flame-haloed,
Scribe fresh history with spent shells and shouts.
The city unscrolls, awaits our crimson
Calligraphy, brush-stroke and sword-stroke.
Look! Snow hammers earth with leaden softness....
Ah, this world's mutable: mountains become coral reefs.
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

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

http://annapoetry.com

[anna]

Blackbird’s Throat

Poems of Japanese tanka writers at the time of the Heian Court would at times contain references to ancient Chinese poetry. It was a useful way to establish the poet’s education and status, for education of the period meant study of the Chinese classics.

These poems also refer either to ancient or to more contemporary Chinese verse. The references may be located using the appendix which is alphabetized according to the first lines of the poems. While my knowledge of Chinese poetry is elementary, I found that linking with it added depth to my poems, layers of history and beauty I would be unable to match using only my own words.

I owe deep gratitude to these ancients and to the more contemporary Chinese poets whose perceptions added so much to my efforts. Perhaps these poems will lead others to further study of the Chinese works.

These poems are based on a teaching experience during the summer of 2005, training teachers at Dong Zhou Middle School, Haimen City, China.


Here are five tanka from the series. After each is the Chinese poem from which a line or reference is taken.


outside noodle shops
in shadowed lanes
old men dream
of when a hundred emotions
stirred their veins

Lui Yu Hsi 772 – 842 to the tune of Glittering Sword Hilts

by the ferry
where she once plucked lilies
waiting for the lover
who did not come
the sugar cane vendors

Emperor Ch’ien Wen-ti, 500 AD “...It’s at the ferry I’m plucking lilies…”

what can be more frail
than these
two rose-coloured petals
cradled in the cup
of a lotus leaf?

The Poetess Li Chi’ng 1084 – 1142, to the tune of Drunk Under Flower Shadow

noon at the mattress store
as if she will dream till dawn
on an incense pillow
the clerk
sleeps at her desk

Po Chü-I 772 – 846 A Song of the Palace

the young teacher
has untied her hair
it falls over her shoulder
glossy as a cicada’s wing
iridescent as a blackbird’s throat

Meng Haoran c. 689 – 740 In Summer at the South Pavilion


from Claudia Radmore : http://claudiaradmore.com/
_________________
---------------------

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]]

Blackbird’s Throat

Poems of Japanese tanka writers at the time of the Heian Court would at times contain references to ancient Chinese poetry. It was a useful way to establish the poet’s education and status, for education of the period meant study of the Chinese classics.

These poems also refer either to ancient or to more contemporary Chinese verse. The references may be located using the appendix which is alphabetized according to the first lines of the poems. While my knowledge of Chinese poetry is elementary, I found that linking with it added depth to my poems, layers of history and beauty I would be unable to match using only my own words.

I owe deep gratitude to these ancients and to the more contemporary Chinese poets whose perceptions added so much to my efforts. Perhaps these poems will lead others to further study of the Chinese works.

These poems are based on a teaching experience during the summer of 2005, training teachers at Dong Zhou Middle School, Haimen City, China.


Here are five tanka from the series. After each is the Chinese poem from which a line or reference is taken.


outside noodle shops
in shadowed lanes
old men dream
of when a hundred emotions
stirred their veins

Lui Yu Hsi 772 – 842 to the tune of Glittering Sword Hilts

by the ferry
where she once plucked lilies
waiting for the lover
who did not come
the sugar cane vendors

Emperor Ch’ien Wen-ti, 500 AD “...It’s at the ferry I’m plucking lilies…”

what can be more frail
than these
two rose-coloured petals
cradled in the cup
of a lotus leaf?

The Poetess Li Chi’ng 1084 – 1142, to the tune of Drunk Under Flower Shadow

noon at the mattress store
as if she will dream till dawn
on an incense pillow
the clerk
sleeps at her desk

Po Chü-I 772 – 846 A Song of the Palace

the young teacher
has untied her hair
it falls over her shoulder
glossy as a cicada’s wing
iridescent as a blackbird’s throat

Meng Haoran c. 689 – 740 In Summer at the South Pavilion


from Claudia Radmore : http://claudiaradmore.com/
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

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

http://annapoetry.com

[anna]

From Sunrise to Tea Set i-iv
i breakfast

Plump rounded teabag,
brewed sunrise of orange pekoe,
spills over sky lines.

ii afternoon

Hands cup ceramic,
mugs steeped in conversation,
Spoons cradle tea bags


iii child’s tea party

Silver spoons tinkle,
fine china cups and biscuits,
Teddy misbehaves.

iv evening

Long cozy tea talks,
warmth infused amber decaf,
tea bell rings good-night.

haiku by Lynn Tait
_________________
---------------------

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]]

From Sunrise to Tea Set i-iv
i breakfast

Plump rounded teabag,
brewed sunrise of orange pekoe,
spills over sky lines.

ii afternoon

Hands cup ceramic,
mugs steeped in conversation,
Spoons cradle tea bags


iii child’s tea party

Silver spoons tinkle,
fine china cups and biscuits,
Teddy misbehaves.

iv evening

Long cozy tea talks,
warmth infused amber decaf,
tea bell rings good-night.

haiku by Lynn Tait
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

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

http://annapoetry.com

[anna]

The Fisherman
after Wu Zhen and Liu Zongyuan, 9th century

The red dragonfly hovers.
Husband, I watch you
on the bank under the willow.
Your line dangles in the water
among its long strands,
tugged by the current.

You wish for a boat
shaped like a leaf,
to trail your silk cord
as you float downstream.
To catch only
what you can eat
and camp on the bank
under the fig tree alone.

The red dragonfly fights the breeze.
The catfish gapes
as you work the hook free
from its tangled whiskers.
It thrashes, churning earth to mud,
but when you bring it home to me
it is the most polished silver.
Even your half blind mother
can see it gleam.

Another Spring
after Tz’u poet Li Ch’ing Chao (1084-1115)

Winter is someone grown
needlessly thin.
Standing by the window
as the light fades
I slide a bangle from
my bony wrist,
but I’m slow
to shed all my ornaments,
hesitate to close the shutter.
The old tree outside hums
with early, drunken bees.
Plum blossoms decorate
a withered twig.


from Kate Roger's Foreign Skin
_________________
---------------------

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]]

The Fisherman
after Wu Zhen and Liu Zongyuan, 9th century

The red dragonfly hovers.
Husband, I watch you
on the bank under the willow.
Your line dangles in the water
among its long strands,
tugged by the current.

You wish for a boat
shaped like a leaf,
to trail your silk cord
as you float downstream.
To catch only
what you can eat
and camp on the bank
under the fig tree alone.

The red dragonfly fights the breeze.
The catfish gapes
as you work the hook free
from its tangled whiskers.
It thrashes, churning earth to mud,
but when you bring it home to me
it is the most polished silver.
Even your half blind mother
can see it gleam.

Another Spring
after Tz’u poet Li Ch’ing Chao (1084-1115)

Winter is someone grown
needlessly thin.
Standing by the window
as the light fades
I slide a bangle from
my bony wrist,
but I’m slow
to shed all my ornaments,
hesitate to close the shutter.
The old tree outside hums
with early, drunken bees.
Plum blossoms decorate
a withered twig.


from Kate Roger's Foreign Skin
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

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

http://annapoetry.com

[anna]

GUANYIN LAMP by Kateri Lanthier

Guanyin lamp left burning in a closed storefront.
Light without mercy on your small right-hand finger,
On your head and broken finger.

Here’s the boy, the girl, faces stroked by your robe.
You’re a hollow never filled
And your face is serene.

The “Cries of the World” unheard behind plate glass.
Dust-streaked kitsch, you dream of sound.
I dream of our rescue.

All that’s empty was once filled past the brim.
The fountains unstoppable–
Air, blood, song.

If I could rub your cheek, place a finger on your brow,
Find scrolled below the lotus the poems of — or —,
Not a worker’s lament.

One of the numbered innumerable, faces lowered.
Compassion cast in clay.
The moon in tears.
Blanched pomegranate at your feet. Fish mid-leap.
Shipped by freighter, globe-poised Guanyin, unhearing…
Unbury me.

Walk me through the flames. We’ll emerge soft and fearless
With a thousand arms each
And a mouth for every wound.

We’ll perch on chemical clouds, rolling dragon dust.
Pain glazed from our lips.
The planet run to extremes.

An engine misfires. I rest my forehead on glass.
Moth-hearted, lost in adulthood,
Thirsty for light.

All the cries of the world! Something to sell, swallow, sorrow.
Your uncontrolled kindness
Rains on the void.

Kateri Lanthier
_________________
---------------------

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]]

GUANYIN LAMP by Kateri Lanthier

Guanyin lamp left burning in a closed storefront.
Light without mercy on your small right-hand finger,
On your head and broken finger.

Here’s the boy, the girl, faces stroked by your robe.
You’re a hollow never filled
And your face is serene.

The “Cries of the World” unheard behind plate glass.
Dust-streaked kitsch, you dream of sound.
I dream of our rescue.

All that’s empty was once filled past the brim.
The fountains unstoppable–
Air, blood, song.

If I could rub your cheek, place a finger on your brow,
Find scrolled below the lotus the poems of — or —,
Not a worker’s lament.

One of the numbered innumerable, faces lowered.
Compassion cast in clay.
The moon in tears.
Blanched pomegranate at your feet. Fish mid-leap.
Shipped by freighter, globe-poised Guanyin, unhearing…
Unbury me.

Walk me through the flames. We’ll emerge soft and fearless
With a thousand arms each
And a mouth for every wound.

We’ll perch on chemical clouds, rolling dragon dust.
Pain glazed from our lips.
The planet run to extremes.

An engine misfires. I rest my forehead on glass.
Moth-hearted, lost in adulthood,
Thirsty for light.

All the cries of the world! Something to sell, swallow, sorrow.
Your uncontrolled kindness
Rains on the void.

Kateri Lanthier
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

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

http://annapoetry.com

[anna]

For Yuan Mei
by John Oughton

Almost another
birthday. I drink
coffee and reflect
on the hill, how
the pines transmute
it to sky
and clouds with
their small, high
heads floating.

As a brush
sublimes stone
and water to song.

- John Oughton
_________________
---------------------

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]]

For Yuan Mei
by John Oughton

Almost another
birthday. I drink
coffee and reflect
on the hill, how
the pines transmute
it to sky
and clouds with
their small, high
heads floating.

As a brush
sublimes stone
and water to song.

- John Oughton
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

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

http://annapoetry.com

[anna]

these poems were all inspired by the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden in Vancouver, BC.

kjmunro's haiku

facing summer –
the plum tree
in the scholar's garden


jade water pavilion
the sound of raindrops
dripping


leak windows –
the pine wants to see
its own reflection


lotus reflection –
mondo grass
for a bookmark


moon gate –
the pond water
intentionally cloudy

by kjmunro
_________________
---------------------

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]]

these poems were all inspired by the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden in Vancouver, BC.

kjmunro's haiku

facing summer –
the plum tree
in the scholar's garden


jade water pavilion
the sound of raindrops
dripping


leak windows –
the pine wants to see
its own reflection


lotus reflection –
mondo grass
for a bookmark


moon gate –
the pond water
intentionally cloudy

by kjmunro
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

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

http://annapoetry.com

[anna]

Being Human
by John. B. Lee

I am reading Rumi
reading Tu Fu
and thinking of being human

last summer
Marty and I
slept in the farmhouse loft
under French heaven near Vitteaux
and we lay in our separate cots
like boys at camp
laughing, talking silly
making fun of everyone
we were mostly ourselves, middle aged men
with the window open
to starlight
and the evening breath of the fields

look up at the slant of ceiling
the slant of beams
this room was built
for dreaming
and we were giddy as lads
with happy lives, not
old Tu Fu, his sadness settled
like shadows, like rivers
like cold stones of winter
and the bitter darkness of long nights
and the lonesome insomnia
of small hours
like the mystical beauty of death and dying
and the inescapable anger of the soul

our hearts refusing the silence
with a lovely slowing exhalation
as we each become
more pensive in
the loosening limbs of slumber
relaxing our hands like unfurled leaves
and pressing our faces to linen
meanwhile great rivers of the earth
the Tigres and Euphrates
the Yangtse
the Amazon of my father’s last days
flow on
and what would I buy
from the famous floating markets of Bangkok

I would purchase the rains of remember
I would purchase the stars of recall
and what to preserve in a poem
but the drenching of darkness with light. ..

by John. B. Lee


---------------------------
_________________
---------------------

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]]

Being Human
by John. B. Lee

I am reading Rumi
reading Tu Fu
and thinking of being human

last summer
Marty and I
slept in the farmhouse loft
under French heaven near Vitteaux
and we lay in our separate cots
like boys at camp
laughing, talking silly
making fun of everyone
we were mostly ourselves, middle aged men
with the window open
to starlight
and the evening breath of the fields

look up at the slant of ceiling
the slant of beams
this room was built
for dreaming
and we were giddy as lads
with happy lives, not
old Tu Fu, his sadness settled
like shadows, like rivers
like cold stones of winter
and the bitter darkness of long nights
and the lonesome insomnia
of small hours
like the mystical beauty of death and dying
and the inescapable anger of the soul

our hearts refusing the silence
with a lovely slowing exhalation
as we each become
more pensive in
the loosening limbs of slumber
relaxing our hands like unfurled leaves
and pressing our faces to linen
meanwhile great rivers of the earth
the Tigres and Euphrates
the Yangtse
the Amazon of my father’s last days
flow on
and what would I buy
from the famous floating markets of Bangkok

I would purchase the rains of remember
I would purchase the stars of recall
and what to preserve in a poem
but the drenching of darkness with light. ..

by John. B. Lee


---------------------------
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

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

http://annapoetry.com

[anna]

Beside the Funeral Home

Richard Greene

Twice a month, I watch special delivery
Of modish coffins for customers anxious
Not to be caught dead in the ordinary

Or to neglect the last public decencies
And thus send parent, aunt or cousin abroad
Again with no mark of comfort or success.

The undertaker’s under-men gravely load
Each empty coffin onto a folding cart
And then walk it from the alley to be stow

Behind a show-room where any broken heart
Costs twelve grand and death looks like a Pontiac,
Chrome -detailed and rust-proofed in every part.

But once cigarettes are stubbed on the sidewalk
And a monk in saffron robe has struck the gong
The cortege is led out by the Cadillac.

Cars reach slowly into traffic and are gone,
A sad departure for these new arrivals,
From a funeral home that calls itself “Wing On.”


---by Richard Greene
_________________
---------------------

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]]

Beside the Funeral Home

Richard Greene

Twice a month, I watch special delivery
Of modish coffins for customers anxious
Not to be caught dead in the ordinary

Or to neglect the last public decencies
And thus send parent, aunt or cousin abroad
Again with no mark of comfort or success.

The undertaker’s under-men gravely load
Each empty coffin onto a folding cart
And then walk it from the alley to be stow

Behind a show-room where any broken heart
Costs twelve grand and death looks like a Pontiac,
Chrome -detailed and rust-proofed in every part.

But once cigarettes are stubbed on the sidewalk
And a monk in saffron robe has struck the gong
The cortege is led out by the Cadillac.

Cars reach slowly into traffic and are gone,
A sad departure for these new arrivals,
From a funeral home that calls itself “Wing On.”


---by Richard Greene
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

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

http://annapoetry.com

[anna]

Asian Expressionism

I.B. Iskov

Subtle heat in the lacquer of language
glazes over an inherited soft elegance.

A unique cosmetic mystique makes-up pictures
of guileless innocence,
the promise of a sidelong glance.

The seductive glow of peach-bloom flesh
lures our attraction to elusive loveliness.

Lush profusion of emerald and gold performs
an exquisite marriage of ethereal pleasure.

Loving dialogue is repeated in folk crafts,
pottery, poetry, porcelain and paintings.

A few simple lines create a mood of longing.
They gather restless whispers, set them aflame,
finally allowing the embers to drift across the pages.

A few simple strokes of a brush depict
samurai, goblins, beauties, foreigners and demons
in an austere dreamland of wonder.

Spring blossoms in a floating world,
ephemeral beauty, the desired truth.

by I.B. Iskov

-------------
_________________
---------------------

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]]

Asian Expressionism

I.B. Iskov

Subtle heat in the lacquer of language
glazes over an inherited soft elegance.

A unique cosmetic mystique makes-up pictures
of guileless innocence,
the promise of a sidelong glance.

The seductive glow of peach-bloom flesh
lures our attraction to elusive loveliness.

Lush profusion of emerald and gold performs
an exquisite marriage of ethereal pleasure.

Loving dialogue is repeated in folk crafts,
pottery, poetry, porcelain and paintings.

A few simple lines create a mood of longing.
They gather restless whispers, set them aflame,
finally allowing the embers to drift across the pages.

A few simple strokes of a brush depict
samurai, goblins, beauties, foreigners and demons
in an austere dreamland of wonder.

Spring blossoms in a floating world,
ephemeral beauty, the desired truth.

by I.B. Iskov

-------------
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

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

http://annapoetry.com