Ibed Gi Kwe – Rest in Peace Granny Sarah
A Eulogy to Granny Sarah
Category: relationships
Regards to Official Cui
Happy To Hear That Official Cui At Tai Yuan Served The Imperial Censor, And Also Sends Regards To The 3rd And 2nd Year Fellow Exam Candidates One day, Shangyin told me, “I was summoned to the Emperor. Terrified and amazed, I kowtowed before him. He looked at me sternly and said “Shangyin, why do you…… Continue reading Regards to Official Cui
Limerick
An Opinion Piece By Mark Obama Ndesandjo: As I write and seek to express myself well, much of I want to say remains in a locked room in the back of my mind. These thoughts have clear outlines, but as I explore them they become muggy and confusing. It is as though I do not…… Continue reading Limerick
Roaming
In the beginning[1], there was no heaven and earth. Instead, a vast silence stretched into the darkness. Out of the great distances, the Creator Pangu was borne on the wings of a beam of light. Had she held a mirror up to her face she would have seen more emptiness, for she was travelling slightly…… Continue reading Roaming
5 Poems for Willow
Willow was of a merchant family of Luo Yang City. Her father was rich and successful in business but drowned in a storm’s tossing waves. Her mother did not care so much for her sons but doted on Willow. At 17, she started to apply makeup and wear her hair in a bun, without much…… Continue reading 5 Poems for Willow
Willow
The Qingming holiday, otherwise known as the Tomb Sweeping or Pure Brightness holiday, has just ended in China. It is a time to commemorate one’s ancestors and typically falls in early April. After the festival, the temperature often rises, along with rainfall and much ploughing and sowing. It is a time of sadness as well…… Continue reading Willow
Heyang Poem
On Sunday, after Li Shangyin alighted from his purple phoenix in Los Angeles, at Hollywood and Vine, most people ignored him. It was about three in the afternoon, when it was both too early and too late to do anything. So, while some in the city were following the Lakers’ latest draft picks or the…… Continue reading Heyang Poem
A Spring Day
A friend of mine once asked me, “What would a farmer in Italy or a cab driver from the Bronx want to know about China?” As I think of this question during the Chinese New Year I thought of three things based on my living in Shenzhen for the past fifteen years: the color red,…… Continue reading A Spring Day
Poem Without a Title 21
I once visited a city in a strange land called America. The people there were stoic and violent. They also were so alone, as though they had never had a father or a mother, and were always flying in the cold air without roots to tether them to the earth. The path of solitude, their…… Continue reading Poem Without a Title 21
Poem Without a Title 19
My best ideas arrive in the night. Night pervades my thoughts. It is a time of darkness and intrigue, of hidden thoughts and longings, of forbidden dalliances, hail, ice and frosty paths glittering in the moonlight. Much of Tang poetry indirectly refers to conflict, tempering its anguish through symbols. These symbols are the blue-green waves…… Continue reading Poem Without a Title 19
Poem Without a Title 18
The Phoenix is a magical bird that would be a Chinese Casanova where it not for the feathers and beak. In this poem I write about seduction, which it symbolizes, and whose singing is to women, irresistible. In Chinese mythology, white jade (白玉) has many amorous connotations. What is my phoenix? It lies in my…… Continue reading Poem Without a Title 18
Poem Without a Title 17
My poem evokes the madness of love. Words are chisels, and sounds are cudgels. The images of love drift like smoke over distant mountains, fragmentary, suffocating and blinding, a grosse fuge of allusive words justified by passion. 重帷深下莫愁堂， zhòng wéi shēn xià mò chóu táng 卧后清宵细细长。 wò hòu qīng xiāo xì xì cháng 神女生涯原是梦， shén nǚ shēng yá yuán shì mèng 小姑居处本无郎。 xiǎo gū jū chǔ běn wú láng 风波不信菱枝弱， fēng bō bù xìn líng zhī ruò 月露谁教桂叶香？ yuè lòu shuí jiào guì yè xiāng…… Continue reading Poem Without a Title 17
A Tang Poet From Nairobi 