Still Bad Poetry II
just deleted an isthmus
out of fear, sheer fear;
this, the culture of fear
and what it does, burns
to the voice, its irons
sharon olds, if only
i had your i, pyre fire
unpacking, welling sounds;
take me there gilded
and august, waves
Author's note:
This poem's forerunner, 'Still Bad Poetry', was anthologized in 2004. This poem appears here for the first time.
poem by Desmond Kon Zhicheng Mingdé
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A Koan Catalogue
A new catalogue has arrived. It sells everything in even numbers
from hampers to visors to worry stones. Da-Ren moves
his thumb across the face of the angel carved into his jadeite piece.
That was a birthday present from the curator with the cellist.
Da-Ren wrote him a masnavi in return, about a mythic river
that had dried up into a periglacial lake. It’s now retrofitted,
a parking lot, where the maroon and mango-yellow Volvo resides.
“It comes in other colours, ” Da-Ren recalls the other cellist saying,
afraid the chess master wouldn’t like the brown-tinged green.
But Da-Ren sees the tree of life in it like a forest in India
and all the bloodstone it can afford, the martyrs within forgotten.
“Take this Caravaggio and follow the splash zone, ” Da-Ren says.
“Reach the foot of the water-logged mountain in Montenegro,
and there, a box poem at page bottom, left and right of centre.”
Author's Note:
This poem's earlier version was one installment within a chapbook sequence chosen by Mary Jo Bang as one of six finalists in the Noemi Press Poetry Chapbook Award. The poem is the premise of a hand-sewn 'Da-Ren' Kelu, a soft sculpture created by plush artist Nana Pong of Roomism. 'Da-Ren' Kelu was given its own micro e-chapbook at Roomism with its own backstory: 'This fruitarian microbat lives in the Tree of Life, and only leaves its roost on the first full moon of every leap year. Little more is known of this mythical-mystical bat. On its last sighting, tourists said it now has the tree emblazoned on its tiny lips, in criss-crossing band-aids, as if to offer an eternal apology for its self-imposed seclusion. Sometimes, it manages to speak. When that happens, the utterance sounds something like 'différance' in soft and cooing echoes.' Other limited edition items based on the character including a pouch, badge, and handmade silver chain have been created, to be exhibited at Fab Fibe Show 2009, an exhibition that brings together showpieces of fabric and paper artists from around the world.
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poem by Desmond Kon Zhicheng Mingdé
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!