It will make me happier to see you than read your poems. However it will give me more joy to watch you writing poems than see you.
Do I keep dreaming to see you or settle for the reality that you are happily doing what you love?
Writer’s notes:
This is an interpretation of Jun’s poem written in Chinese.
见诗的快乐不如见你的快乐。
见你的快乐不如见你写诗的快乐。
哪一种快乐去梦里?
哪一种快乐到现实？
In response to The Living Poetry prompt – Summer/Winter, I produced a half sonnet. The reason I called it half is because I managed 7 lines, 10 syllabus each line, with no iambic pentameter or rhyme. 🤪
You came in the deep of the darkest night
The leaves stripped off the trees by violence
You sealed their fate with humiliation
Snow white wedding gown on threadbare body
The bride weeped bitterly in her slender
Larmenting her beauty taken by you
Your treacherous hands ruined the most pure
He often looks up the calming blue sky
That’s the clarity he holds on to
combating the tangled emotions he lives with
He has been him for so long
and he has been fighting this complex battle ever since
He cannot comprehend it all
not now or not ever
Some past is best left undiscovered
and some history is best unknown
He loves the blue sky as his earliest memory
He remembers looking up from the darkness and he saw the same clear blue sky
Writer’s note about Blue Knot
Knot – adults survived child trauma and abuse often experience complex trauma resembles a knot
Blue – the colour of the sky resembles hope
She walked along the strip in front of her apartment
back and forth, back and forth slowly
with a tender back
It’s worth it
and all she could manage
ten minutes in the sun
in the middle of Winter
There was no work to go to
no appointment to attend
no fund to go out
Everything in life at that point
was out of her control
She had never learned to be doing nothing
up until that Winter
It was a humbling experience indeed
There was no help from anyone
when everyone else was experiencing more or less the same thing:
jobless and soon to be homeless
Now she is sitting in the garden of a women’s refugee
ten minutes in the sun
in the beginning of Summer
and she manages a few thanksgiving and prayer
She happily handed all control to the Boss upstairs
after she realised through all that
she was kept warm, well fed and the sun has been shining
She lost him long time ago
ever since she deflected
whenever he asked her
what she was really thinking
Arrogance Bikini – Emma Hoet & BLOWSOM
Chaque fois que l’été reviendra
Ce sera comme la première fois
L’éclat des visages
Sur le port près de moiL’ennui passe, on s’égare
Jusqu’à perdre notion du temps
Et le chant des cigales
Annonce la saisonEn bord de mer
Je m’agace, arrogance bikini
Rêve solitaire
Sur la plage, arrogance bikiniDa da da, da da da, da da da, da da da
Da da da, da da da (arrogance bikini)
Da da da, da da da, da da da, da da da
Da da da, da da da (arrogance bikini)Les mâts des voiliers loin devant
Jusque là dansaient doucement
Mais les vagues se préparent
À effacer le tempsDes beaux jours, des amours
Car c’est la fin du séjour
Quand vient l’heure du départ
Nostalgie m’entoureEn bord de mer
Je m’agace, arrogance bikini
Rêve solitaire
Sur la plage, arrogance bikiniDa da da, da da da, da da da, da da da
Da da da, da da da (arrogance bikini)
Da da da, da da da, da da da, da da da
Da da da, da da da (arrogance bikini)
Car rides to Malibu
Strawberry ice cream
One spoon for two
And trading jackets
Laughing ’bout how small it looks on you
(Ha-ha-ha-ha, ha-ha-ha-ha, ha-ha-ha-ha)
Watching reruns of Glee
Being annoying
Singing in harmony
I bet she’s bragging
To all her friends, saying you’re so unique, hmm
So when you gonna tell her
That we did that too?
She thinks it’s special
But it’s all reused
That was our place, I found it first
I made the jokes you tell to her when she’s with you
Do you get déjà vu when she’s with you?
Do you get déjà vu? (Ah), hmm
Do you get déjà vu, huh?
Do you call her
Almost say my name?
‘Cause let’s be honest
We kinda do sound the same
Another actress
I hate to think that I was just your type
I’ll bet that she knows Billy Joel
‘Cause you played her Uptown Girl
You’re singing it together
Now I bet you even tell her
How you love her
In between the chorus and the verse (ooh) (I love you)
So when you gonna tell her
That we did that too?
She thinks it’s special
But it’s all reused
That was the show we talked about
Played you the song she’s singing now when she’s with you
Do you get déjà vu when she’s with you?
Do you get déjà vu? Oh
Do you get déjà vu?
Strawberry ice cream in Malibu
Don’t act like we didn’t do that shit too
You’re trading jackets like we used to do
(Yeah, everything is all reused)
Play her piano, but she doesn’t know (oh, oh)
That I was the one who taught you Billy Joel (oh)
A different girl now, but there’s nothing new
(I know you get déjà vu)
I know you get déjà vu
I know you get déjà vu
记得那年仲夏的傍晚
漫天的青绿彩云见证
桑树下我们互相许愿
我们的爱情果实累累
如今我独自旧地重游
透熟的桑果额前嘲讽
三十来年的果盛果落
黑发的恋人如今鬓白
我们的爱情早已消失
如桑果从纯白到紫黑
Remember that summer evening
under the mulberry tree
sky full of green and cyan clouds
witnessed our pledge of love
would be like the ripen mulberries
Now I am revisiting the scene alone
the heavy mulberries dangling on my forehead
laughing at my naiveté
We were once young and pure
three decades of success and failure
we are now with silvery temples
our love had long been bruised
like the dark purple mulberries
Flicker of Thoughts 