Out of town

- A classic poem says, when you have a bosom friend across the sea, even if you're in the far corner of the earth, you still feel like your friend is close. My grandmother changed one word of this poem from "have" to "meet/encounter" for the first two lines of this poem.
- 'song buo' (pine cypress) as discussed in an earlier post indicates old, steadfast, faithful
- Another classic saying is that when the weather is cold, then you see pine trees are the last to drop their needles. This refers to knowing someones character only after a time of testing or trial. The annual cold's heart phrase, like the yearly winter cold, means that my grandmother felt this friend could related to her trials.
- "clothing bosom" is an expression for open- or narrow-mindedness which Chinese people associate with heart rather than mind. Another expression is 'qi liang' which is literally "air volume". If it's 'da' or "big", it means someone has great capacity, e.g. 1 Corinthians 13:7 in describing love which "bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
- "sun moon" means big, high, bright: all positive traits
- ya ying = rhyme

To my little hometown friend
Ocean far meet known self
Sky wide like nextdoor neighbor
Table side talk departed things
All words old hometown lore
Wishing you pine cypress proliferation
Can understand annual cold's heart
Clothing bosom like sun moon
Wisdom a golden proverb impart

- cen actually wall but is commonly known as city. boundary.

Lian City Hot Water Fish
I heard about the countryside outside Lian City there was a hot spring. The hot spring flowed into a small stream. Many people like to go see it. In the stream were fish. Very strange because the water was hot and there were fish. People would go to the stream and count fish. So I went to visit and wrote this poem.

Hot spring located at isolated deserted place
Hundred degree water shockingly has fish
Of ten-thousand things only adaptive ones survive
Don't mind hot heat still peacefully exist

Even flow

- Yubing is my aunt, the wife of my dad's younger brother. She comes from a family of artists, her father and uncle--twins--were both famous painters. I have one of the uncle's coffee table books.

Titling painting
Yubing's request

Leisurely enjoying reading books quietness play piano
Relaxation time to sing songs poems solo
Lady's heart mails sorrow but no destination
On tatami pondering longing for responding memo


- From the third section of Gonggong's volume named Yenxi (swallow bird) after a little stream that flowed through the village in Fujian province where he lived with his bank colleagues for a while. The landfill that accumulated at the mouth of this river would flood occasionally. The bank built many levees to prevent the water from backflowing.
- Ox Head Mountain is on the border between Jiangxi (Gan) and Fujian (Ming) provinces.
- During Japanese invasion, they often used mountain roads because they were difficult to travel, narrow and steep.
- Mountain water is used as a compound word to mean topography or terrain
- Sheep intestine is often used to describe a narrow curving road
- Sudao is a road to Sichuan famous for its difficult passage

Ox Head Mountain Peak

Ming Gan mountain water too crooked zigzag
Ox Head ranging peaks layers of summits
Fast flowing valley bottom streams sound deafening
Dark shaded rock side trees look cold
Narrow turns dangerous slopes three hundred degrees
Sheep intestine path curves one thousand times
Setting sun lowers west autumn wind gusts
Even more difficult and treacherous than Sudao

Feast or famine

Notes on grandma's poem:
- 'Holding wine talk heart' represents sitting with friends having a heart to heart talk
- Another Village is probably the name of a restaurant (personal note is I recently ate lunch at a great little restaurant called Green Village)

Poem on Another Village

Fancy abundant table fit for emperial royalty
Carefully meticulously prepared every lovely plated dish
Stay foreign place often as restaurant guest
Holding wine talk hearts content another village

Notes on grandpa's poem:
- On my grandma's poem about Xihu (West Lake) I had the same note: there is a Chinese saying: "Upwards has heaven, downwards has Su Hang" referring to Suzhou and Hangzhou which are two places famous for scenery and natural beauty.
- The word used for medicine can also mean copy book papers for learning to write
- Dragon Well tea is famous for its taste
- a note on wind imagery: Chinese often use wind description to connote attitudes like bravado and tranquility. Every ordinal has a feel: eastern is happy, northern is cold and cruel, southern is warm and kind. Chinese people say they 'drink northwesterly wind' when they've lost their jobs and can't provide for their families, or do work with little reward. There is an expression about spring wind that means everything is going your way. and you are pleased with yourself.
- Similar to western thought, sunset represents sadness, closure, ending; and sunrise as hopeful and glorious beginning.

The Scene at Suzhou Train Station

Suzhou city old post noisy crowded hubbub
Short houses desolated depressed four five homes
Thin bones struggle clothes hanging shoes ragged
Ambition and dreams disappear temple hair white
Blanket bit vendors sell Mount Han medicine
Broken stove crudely boils Dragon Well tea
Gusting cold harsh wind doors half closed
Shop doors dark shadowy sun sets west

My poem about meeting up with an old friend

Tonight, I showed up late and my mom is going to bed early because we're driving to Spokane tomorrow for Jan's funeral. And since I've been meaning to write a poem about an old friend, why not tonight?

It feels funny to work outside of a form. I'll give myself one.

The sixth love language is food
My best friend from college Joyce and I have spent the last 14 years living in separate cities. We have visited each other often. The longest span between times just ended with my recent trip to San Francisco, a few weeks before her son turns two. We have gobs of funny stories about eating and meals that only arise out of cohabitating during a singularly unique phase of life. This poem references merely four of them. The title alludes to a book called The 5 Love Languages.

She remembered I like cantaloupe
and bought me one
it was waiting on the shining kitchen counter
and she chopped it up the next day
juicy evenly-sized bites of nostalgia

I remembered she likes Turkish Delight
and got her a box
it joined the melon next to the stove
and sat there for three days
supple powdered squares of friendship

We both like red meat and schlag
and went to House of Prime Rib
it served one thing in four thicknesses
and we ordered the same cut medium well
rich buttery fullness of understanding