{"id":8271,"date":"2014-04-09T18:30:22","date_gmt":"2014-04-09T22:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/?p=8271"},"modified":"2017-02-15T15:42:28","modified_gmt":"2017-02-15T20:42:28","slug":"what-poetry-gives-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2014\/04\/what-poetry-gives-us.html","title":{"rendered":"what poetry gives us"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"courtesy<\/a>
courtesy Google<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today’s poem is actually a three-fer. I’ve been writing to prompts from NaPoWriMo<\/a>, one of the national sites for National Poetry Writing Month. The poem today is written from yesterday’s prompt, which asked writers to do a riff on a poem (Black Stone Lying On A White Stone<\/em><\/a>) by C\u00e9sar Vallejo. To show those writers who might wonder how the heck you write from\/ to another’s poem, NaPoWriMo offered a 2nd poem by Stephen Burt (A Nickel on Top of a Penny<\/a><\/em>).<\/p>\n

All of this is by way of remarking: poetry is another kind of web. Like Buddhism (you KNEW I was going to say that), like life. If all that I’ve learned from reading & writing poetry could be measured and sold? I’d be so rich! Oh wait ~ that’s the whole point of poetry…<\/p>\n

Seriously? To look so closely at anything — poetry, a bee, the surface of a cup of hot tea — is to learn. Just seeing the moment clearly is, as all meditation teaches (in any faith tradition) a form of reverence for life.<\/p>\n

So here is my poem today, a tribute to both poets, as well as my own childhood, and the differences that were obvious very early.<\/p>\n

\"Lam<\/a>
Lam Son Park, Saigon in 1960s, with Saigon Opera House in background
Courtesy Google<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dust On a Tropical Breeze<\/p>\n

after C\u00e9sar Vallejo<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Old Saigon will claim me<\/p>\n

after I fold my wings, after decades of flight.<\/p>\n

Probably on Monday moonday, Lundi<\/i>, at the grande march\u00e9<\/i><\/p>\n

I will collapse in feathery dust beside the leper at the gate.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I knew this even as a child, watching the leper\u2019s outstretched hands<\/p>\n

knew I was already half-erased, only a dusty ghost<\/p>\n

like the hungry b<\/i>\u1ee5i <\/i>\u0111<\/i>\u1eddi[1]<\/b><\/a> <\/i>who float upon the wind.<\/p>\n

I am half Saigon still.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018She is gone,\u2019 they will murmur, in breathy whispers.<\/p>\n

My words will unravel like the silk of cocoons<\/p>\n

and they will weave a sieve to catch the wind.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018We didn\u2019t mean to hurt her,\u2019 they will say.<\/p>\n

\u2018Who knew she would fall to dust?<\/p>\n

She seemed so much more solid\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

[1]<\/a> The Vietnamese term b<\/i><\/b>\u1ee5i <\/i><\/b>\u0111<\/i><\/b>\u1eddi<\/i><\/b> means”dust of life”; it has come to refer to refugees vagrants, as well as Amerasian children left behind after the Vi\u1ec7t Nam war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s poem is actually a three-fer. I’ve been writing to prompts from NaPoWriMo, one of the national sites for National Poetry Writing Month. The poem today is written from yesterday’s prompt, which asked writers to do a riff on a poem (Black Stone Lying On A White Stone) by C\u00e9sar Vallejo. To show those writers…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[317,22],"tags":[11,1181,1187,262,776,318,1263,777],"class_list":["post-8271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-poetry-writing-month","category-poetry","tag-beginners-heart","tag-britton-gildersleeve","tag-buddhism","tag-buddhist-blogs","tag-cesar-vallejo","tag-national-poetry-month","tag-national-poetry-writing-month","tag-stephen-burt"],"yoast_head":"\nwhat poetry gives us - Beginner's Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Today's poem is actually a three-fer. I've been writing to prompts from NaPoWriMo, one of the national sites for National Poetry Writing Month. 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