“Today and tomorrow is all we have. Yesterday, no matter what some will say Is gone,” I write, but as soon as I do The wall I’m leaning on says, “I am still Here when you’ve gone. Yesterday’s plants grow out Of me and break … Read More →
Monthly Archives: July 2010
My Homeroom
Homerooms are like your children. You always love the ones you get. This year at Wuhan University was no different. My students have a wide range of majors: mathematics, electrical, hydrogen, and power engineering, biology, chemistry, surveying and mapping, sociology, statistics, electric and optical information, … Read More →
A Mirror by Muhammad Izchi
This beautiful short poem was written summer of 2010 by Muhammad, a Muslim student of mine from western China. He is the first student at Wuhan I’ve ever had who wasn’t Hun Chinese. There are more foreign students on campus, particularly from Africa, that I … Read More →
Dusk by Ruiqi Liu
When I first met Rich, the summer of 2008, I thought she was very shy, but I also knew she was confident enough to give me a poem she had written for a class assignment. Like most of my poets, she’s a scientist, pharmaceutical research … Read More →
Sonnet 123: It is so hot before you run you sweat
It is so hot before you run you sweat. Fanning himself a man and his wife walk Holding hands. He sings and she doesn’t with Just as much force. It’s dawn. The lighter it Gets the more the runners start to come. The Man shooting … Read More →
A Scene by Iris Shieh
Iris was in my poetry workshop last summer. She introduced me to the poet Bian Zhilin, one of China’s favorites. Zhilin was a university professor who was greatly influenced by the English Romantics and the French Symbolists. He liked to use strange words, which makes … Read More →
You Are Beautiful by Di Wu
Every country has its radicals, thank goodness, most within a stone’s throw, and if you look, you will find them, like the truth. Even radicals can be in love, and feel its pangs, and write about it. You are beautiful like the blooming flowers. But … Read More →
Exquisite Corpses: Wuhan Poetry 2010
The photos above were picked at random. I first picked 13 because 13 is one of my favorite numbers, then I flipped a coin, tails (odds) and heads (even) to eliminate either 6 or 7 of them. It came up heads so I kept the … Read More →
Eden writes a poem after Alice Notley (a beautiful thought)
Eden is my youngest student. She is 15 and still in high school. Like many 15 year olds, Eden is a joy: every moment is something new. After reading a poem by Alice Notley called UNTITLED about her youngest son, Edmund My little boy’s sick … Read More →
My Heart by Nicolas
My Heart My heart is a fragile vessel Love is a seed Soil filled up my heart Love is a seed The seed has blossomed into a flower The vessel was ruined My Heart by Nicolas
On Passion by Richard He
You see it raining and rushing Like beasts, and roaring You tremble at it and pray It keeps on pouring. On Passion by Richard He
After the Rain: 7/20/10
Today it started to rain and thunder and then it stopped. After class puddles were everywhere as I walked to my favorite restaurant. It was closed. For good. The man keeping guard in the gutted space spoke Chinese of course so what he told me … Read More →