Poetry in Motion, Day 2 (Bei Dao)

I alluded to my office, pictured above, which has eight framed PiM posters hanging proudly. I also discovered a cache of posters behind the door to my office, and I'm missing one signed by the poet Hayden Carruth. Nonetheless, I am confident I'll be able to give you one for each day of April 2007.

For April 2, I'm choosing not one from the wall, but another, that most closely resembles a love poem, in honor of Melanie and I celebrating our 12th anniversary today:


The poet is Chinese writer Bei Dao, and the piece is excerpted from "A Bouquet":

Between me and the world
You are a calendar, a compass
A ray of light that slips through the gloom
You are a biographical sketch, a bookmark
A preface that comes at the end
Between me and the world
You are a gauze curtain, a mist
A lamp shining into my dreams
You are a bamboo flute, a song without words
A closed eyelid carved in stone

Previous BillyBlog Poetry in Motion posts:

from My Grandmother's New York Apartment by Elizabeth Alexander (Day 1)