Friends & flowers

On the occasion of our first meeting

Peach blossoms swaying like a drunk.
New branches on an ancient willow, green and tender.
Call forth my poet friends, add to their zeal.
This spring, opening ahead, the first voice. 

In Chicago, March 1991, we formed a poetry club. This was the inaugural meeting. I wrote five poems.

My mom taught me a cute set of 7 word phrases representing the cultured person vs. reality, or the maiden's dream vs. the housewife's daily life:

Music                      Firewood
Chess                     Rice
Calligraphy              Oil
Painting                  Salt  
Poetry                     Soy sauce
Drinking                  Vinegar
Flowers                   Tea

I made her laugh by saying it's true, I am the first list whereas my sister (who is married with four kids) is the second.

Flower Way

Thin green, wide red, kinds don't match.
Only one good flower surrounded by grass.
These once, after arranged by skilled hands,
Weeds and broken branches, now art, their former state surpass.

I went to a friend's house, who had a flower arrangement. This flower arrangement is a cultural thing, there are many schools of thought in arranging the flowers.