Box kite: prose poems

175 Pages·2016·7.826 MB·English

by  Baziju;Borson, Roo;Maltman, Kim

BOX KITE

BOX
KITE
PROSE POEMS
BY BAZIJU
ROO BORSON
& KIM MALTMAN
Copyright © 2016 Roo Borson and Kim Maltman
Published in Canada in 2016 and in
the USA in 2016 by House of Anansi Press Inc.
www.houseofanansi.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Baziju, author
Box kite : prose poems / by Baziju (Roo Borson & Kim Maltman).
Issued in print and electronic formats.
isbn 978-1-77089-964-3 (bound).—isbn 978-1-77089-962-9 (paperback).—
isbn 978-1-77089-963-6 (pdf)
I.Title.
ps8603.a962b69 2016 c811’.6 c2015-907817-2
c2015-907818-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015957631
Cover image: Baziju
Cover design: Alysia Shewchuk
Text design and typesetting: Marijke Friesen
We acknowledge for their financial support of our publishing program the
Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Government
of Canada through the Canada Book Fund.
Having seen a kite, they all sent servants off to get
their own kites. When the kites were up and had
reached the end of their strings, they cut the strings,
setting them loose. The loosed kites then disappeared,
taking the bad luck of their owners with them.
— Loose adaptation of an incident occurring during
the Poetry Club meeting in Chapter 70 of Honglou
Meng (The Story of the Stone in David Hawkes’s
translation)
Eternal verities are always present and easily acquired;
in greater jeopardy are those fragile details that make
up the palpable past.
— Stephen Owen

Tengluo: Wisteria / 3
The SnowN Cabbages of Harbin / 7
Summer Day in the Mountains / 9
Xishi Doufu / 16
Jiufen: Nine Pieces / 21
Ba Gua: The Eight Trigrams / 23
The Garden of the Master of Nets / 29
The Bagel Paradise / 41
Harbord Street / 46
Liquidambar: Adelaide Hills / 49
Songshu / 57
Yuanfen / 61
My Friend Liu / 64
Yuanming Yuan: The Garden of Perfect
Brightness / 66
Acrobats: Shanghai 1990 / 70
Overflowing Luck / 72
Yard / 81
Guanyin / 83
Lu Xun’s Desk / 86
The Scholar of the Garden / 112
Box Kite / 125
Shanghai / 129
A Note in NClosing / 155

Acknowledgements / 161

Box Kite