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This piece is about 3 printed pages long. It is copyright © Christopher (Kit) Kelen and Jacket magazine 2008.
The Internet address of this page is http://jacketmagazine.com/35/kelen-kit-4p.shtml
thanks for the fire
(a note to my neighbour)
white house in green mountains
where the kind man lives
he gives me two dark
ingots of charcoal
better than rice and
better than silver
warmth of the fire
this charcoal gives
straightens the body
peels off the cold
sunrise and sunset
spring, summer bold
better than rice and
better than silver
warmth of the fire
this charcoal gives
old story about Lan Ke Mountain
before the two children finish their game
everything on earth will have passed
they’ll be cloud borne
with their board and pieces
the woodcutter however finds his way home
hands full of air, he himself wind blown ash
only a stone bridge still stands
joins nothing to nothing
one day among immortals
ten thousand years down here
immortality pills
three or four characters
suddenly in stone
ten thousand years they’ll last
a good thing
because the dead
have a hard time
getting things finished
the moon hangs slant
mourning for the house now empty
how long is a life?
night is longer
words to say
are stone
mourning poem
the oriole is full of tact
sings for those with something to wake for
with you gone
there’s not much of spring for me
the sun out of season
mocks all inconstancy
when it’s high enough
for birds to retire
then I might come from my nest
Christopher (Kit) Kelen
Christopher (Kit) Kelen’s most recent volumes of poetry are Dredging the Delta (book of Macao poems and sketches), published in 2007 by Cinnamon
Press (UK) and After Meng Jiao: Responses to the Tang Poet, published in 2008 by VAC (Chicago, IL). Kit Kelen has taught Literature and Creative Writing for the last eight years at the University of Macau in south China. He is the editor of the on-line journal Poetry Macao and poetry editor for the monthly lifestyle/current affairs journal Macao Closer.
Meng Jiao (751–814) was a poet of the late Tang. Unable to pass the examinations that would have given him a respectable official post, Meng lived a life of poverty as a poet, travelling much and becoming known as one of the great complainers in the Chinese tradition. More than five hundred of his poems survive.