In my essay put up by Berfrois this morning on variations on a theme of Li Po, a notebook of poems I’ve been working on for years, originally suggested by my reading and writing experience with my former student Florence, I make reference to a few books she gave me. Below, I’ve posted some pics of the books, which I still have in my library. Among her many experiences Florence shared with me, she told me that she and her husband had fought with the resistance in the mountains of the Philippines in World War Two.
Florence was an excellent cook. Each quarter, my classes devoted an entire period to a potluck meal to celebrate the closing of the term. Recipes learned in kitchens around the world ended up on my classroom tables for our refugee feasts.
Travel over to Berfrois to have a look at the essay on Li Po’s poem.
The Coming of the Toads 
I like Li Po’s playing with time, and I like that he liked the pleasure of drinking wine :)
… poetry as a habit of mind might resemble the kind of poetry the Chinese lived with when writing and reading poetry was commonplace … on bamboo, wood, stones and cliffs…on the walls of people’s houses … an awareness that comes to one in the present time of something experienced in the past …
It’s alive as a habit of mind, though less appreciated – the spontaneous frottage, bricolage, graffiti, doodles, scrawls in urban places.
I like the idea of an ongoing graphic novel, “Li Po’s Restless Night.”
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“…frottage, bricolage…” cottage, chantey, fraughtage. thx Ashen, a poetry of the vernacular, the empirical, yet universal, of the world. So many excellent graphic artists these days. But maybe I’ll give the graphic novel a go. Why not?
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