December 21, 2011 On discussing the qualities of confidence the other day, a group of my students decided that the ability to be persuaded, to change your mind was a quality of confidence, because only those with confidence in their own abilities to make choices … Read More →
Monthly Archives: July 2012
Yangtze Sonnets
I wrote first drafts of these poems in early August of 2006 over a few days going through the Three Gorges on the Yangtze River with some colleagues, fellow American faculty, who’d taught American Cultural Studies (I’d covered music) at Wuhan University that July. Teaching … Read More →
Sonnet 139: Out of the dark the steep mountains come. At
Out of the dark the steep mountains come. At First a line and nothing more appears on Either side for a long time then there’s light Inside a house, someone sleeping who woke. I am all alone along the Yangtze Whose sides are high, pure … Read More →
Some thoughts on the art and the artist
The art and the artist, can we love one and not the other? It’s a difficult question to answer. Sometimes my heroes can be embarrassing and pathetic like Li Bai trying to kiss the moon’s reflection on the lake falling out of the boat and … Read More →
Sonnets 1 to 5
1 Looking at the springs, sitting in the sun Something at my nape begins to tickle Like the wind’s moving a hair there, fickle On my bare neck between the scalp and trunk. I’m reading the poet Bill Kushner—Ah! His April Poems are wonderful to … Read More →
Sonnet 83: My mouth is as slimy as a warm snail
… My mouth is as slimy as a warm snail. Walking down the mountain navigating Sharp rocks and the loose snapping sticks lying In wait to strike at my legs on the trail All that is wet is oozing out of me. My forehead drips, … Read More →
Sonnet 90: The poet slides on her bottom stubborn
The poet slides on her bottom stubborn As a turtle over slippery stones Sitting inching picking up the large ones That hinder her path dropping them to form An island in the current that’s rushing At us. I’m on the stream’s descending slope Walking as … Read More →