Two New Poems in Serving House Journal

Two New Poems

are in

Serving House Journal

Both poems are from a new manuscript

influenced by Classical Chinese Poets

(Tu Fu, Li Po, Su T'ung Po, Wang Wei, Chia Tao…)

You can find the two poems

here.

The poem "Dead of Night" was influenced by Tu Fu's 

"Night at the Tower."

In mid-December I was reading the poem and heard this massive low droning noise outside.

I opened the door and saw plane after plane, one following the other, all heading west, on some training maneuver.

The names in the poems - Chu-ko Liang and Pai-ti -

are figures in Chinese history (the first a state official, the second a warlord), referenced in relation to military adventures.

Night At The Tower

Yin and Yang cut brief autumn days short. Frost and snow
Clear, leaving a cold night open at the edge of heaven.

Marking the fifth watch, grieving drums and horns erupt as
A river of stars, shadows trembling, drifts in Three Gorges.

Pastoral weeping–war heard in how many homes? And tribal
Songs drifting from the last woodcutters and fishermen…

Chu-ko Liang, Pai-ti: all brown earth in the end. And it
Opens, the story of our lives opens away…vacant, silent.

                                         (translated by David Hinton)

Issue 18 of Serving House Journal

 includes poems, fiction, memoir and art

by

Beate Sigriddaughter, Jim Zola, Mel Takahara,

Alexis Rhone Fancher, Simon Perchik, Mary Makofske,

and Vivian Shipley, among many others…