Wangechi Mutu, Water Woman 

2017

Aqua Original

ode to a broken heart

It's broken: I learned
It hurts: I cry

Sitting in the Kazakh sunshine hungry for vitamin D in temperatures so cold outdoors they murder my spirit after dark. I remember you joking about my bird's nest haircut; taking the piss out my contemporary-hippy hairstyle.

 I missed you today, similar to past days, yet time is healing aloe on the brittle sunburn of a broken love.

 The sound of your voice mocking the BBC- the voice of gravitas; My head on your naked chest wondering how that irregular heartbeat of yours kept you alive day by day, beat by beat.

 The "I have diabetes" prelude before stuffing a doublewide Bounty chocolate bar in your mouth.

 Your muscled bum which you attributed to cycling in your youth clad in black long johns firm and round to the touch.

 The kind and caring things you did for me like lending me your flashlight for the dark descent to my apartment. 

  Neighbors: Lovers 

 Making fish finger sandwiches and your hallowed toaster: giver of life to breakfast. You in the kitchen; me arms around your waist. Laughter.

 The warmth of your skin; your upbeat and humorous approach to awkward situations; and your damn British accent.

I still miss you. 

2015 January: Broad City

Sofa Poems 

I have so many goals and visions for 2015, grandiose milestones life may or may not grant, but listening to poetry is appropriate for a Sunday afternoon on the sofa.

A kiss would do it.

One sprinkle of milkwhite salt

and I'll break like bread at your table.

- From "Grassland" by Sarah Sloat: First appeared in The Rose and Thorn



Moving Poems

The Poetry Storehouse 

Wild Horses: I am a snake!

The year of the horse gallops in to the future: Welcome 2014.

Coal Power: Tea Kettle Heat Hutong Style

 Beijing Bus Stop: Dusk

The Vegetable Seller in Pinganli

My old neighborhood in Nanluoguxiang was quaint.

Playing Catch Up in Beijing

Nanluoguxiang Hutong: Coffee and Cats

Alliteration ditty-do-wop

Alliteration - Visual Poem III

Beijing, Bicycles,and Brooms-
If Walt Disney were behind his desk,
they would be dancing a
ditty-do-wop-don't stop til you drop.


I shot this photo in a pedestrian walkway beside my apartment building.
Location: Dongsishitiao, Beijing on April Fools' Day 2013
Mickey Mouse is missing unless he's whirling and twirling through your imagination.

shallow breathing

hazy breathing 

though a PM 2.5 glaze of yellow

spreading the sky and lungs and tender noses

of Beijing masked pedestrians

making their way home. 

National Poetry Month 2013

April Sneezy, runny nose. 
May please Please Me, sunny rose. 

Wipe Away Fever, season change. 
Robustness deliver, to my June! 

- I'm rhyming for National Poetry Month.

H.G. Wells: The Invisible Man

Wearing A Cloak Of Invisibility 

If Jesse were invisible, he would go to Spain and help his favorite soccer team win against the other team. He would be their invisible goal keeper.

If Jerry were invisible, he would go to the bank and steal money and then go kiss the girl he loves. 

Ethan would push Nash forward when Nash faced Maggie- his true love.

If Nash were invisible, he would do research on how to be invisible so that he could be invisible any time.

Mike would fall in love with someone he likes, and if James were invisible, he would catch the thief to save the world. Alan plans to find his friends from middle school, but Ann would sleep in the dorm until lunch.

Michelle would enjoy free travel around the world. 

Surprisingly, Tina would be a killer. 

William would pay more attention to the people he likes, and Steven plans to take a photo of himself and send it to his blog. Charles would like to be a super-spy like James Bond. 

And finally, Cullen would perform an invisible grand theft auto in Beijing.

Slowly Ascending

This is how I feel every morning when I take the 

elevator 21 floors down, down...

THE elevator continued its impossibly slow ascent. Or at least I imagined it was ascent. There was no telling for sure: it was so slow that all sense of direction simply vanished. It could have been going down for all I knew, or maybe it wasn’t moving at all. But let’s just assume it was going up. Merely a guess. Maybe I’d gone up twelve stories, then down three. Maybe I’d circled the globe. How would I know?

Murakami, Haruki (2010-11-17). Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (p. 1). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition. 

Love Your Country With Rationality

Note: I assisted my students with their speech for tomorrow’s flag-raising ceremony. Listen to what China's future leaders have to say!

Today, our theme is: Love your country with rationality.

Tomorrow, we are going to welcome a significant day that we Chinese will never forget.

At midnight on September eighteenth, 1931, the Northeastern Army awoke to the blaring sound of bombs. The Japanese Empire bombed railroads near Liuhu in Shenyang province, and accused the Chinese Army.

With this excuse, the Japanese army bombed the barracks of the Nortnheastern Army, capturing the city of Shenyang. Half a year later, Northeastern China was occupied by Japan. That was a great shock to the whole world and a symbol of Japanese aggression, which was called the Incident of Nine Eighteen. The national humiliation was something we Chinese would never forget.

14 years! Bleeding 14 years!

The Northeast, the Central Plain and then the Songhu Area, were captured one by one. This great country was suffering and wailing. A bloody river spread through the mainland. We sacrificed 35 million lives to win the war!

This was a horrifying war. But we weren’t afraid of countless sacrifices; We Chinese got together for the first time to fight aggression. During the most desperate time, the power was building from the bottom of every Chinese citizen’s heart. The power was the desire for a peaceful life and for justice.

The mist of war has been cleaned off, but the alarming memories are still in our hearts.

Peace is not free. At the moment, it’s 81 years later, but still a painfully aching day.

I am sure all of you know about the event of the Diaoyu Island. It’s a question shaped by history. I should begin from the failure of the Qing Empire in the JiaWu naval battle. As a vanquished country, we gave some of our islands to Japan, including Diaoyu Island. After that, Japan was defeated during World War Two, and the United States asked Japan to give the island back to China. All of these countries reached an agreement that said Japan would help manage the Island. Today, how dare you Japan claim that Diaoyu Island as your national island?

How dare you regard China’s sovereignty as nothing!

Premier Wen said:

”The dignity that Chinese people and the government used to struggle for freedom is treasured during tough times; We are strong as steel.” Diaoyu Island belongs to China geographically and historically. So, we won’t take any steps back on the argument about the territory and sovereignty.

What we have to remember is the island is ours according to history. The destiny of a country depends on its people. We should defend our sovereignty positively.

However, impulse and anger won’t show the true heart of the country. Instead, having a responsible heart and a calm mind that can help you judge right or wrong are needed! Students and teachers, let’s change the love to our country into the power of study in order to make a stronger China! We will be pillars of the country both rational and logical.

Incident nine eighteen, we still remember and we will remember for all time. Keep the humiliation in our mind and love our country with rationality and calm.

Speakers: Jason Qian class 1 and Jason Ni class 2

Flag raiser: Mao Yuying class 1

Disguises

Disguises

The students in my literature class are studying the short story “Disguise” by Jean Fong Kwok. In the story, the main character, Mrs. Chen, is an immigrant from China who lives in New York City. Mrs. Chen can’t speak English and gets lost in a dangerous neighborhood. I asked the students in one of my classes to write about a time they have felt confused or misunderstood when speaking a foreign language. Here are several responses from the students to this writing prompt. The kids are reflecting on their first two weeks of school. Their responses serve to remind me that as a teacher, I am also responsible for students' emotional and social well being. The writing is in the students’ own voices.

Kevin, Class 3, 4-B

I land up in a strange city. In there, I don’t feel completely at ease in the strange surroundings. Without any money or friends, everythings make me confused. Nobody knows what I say. Being a lonely man is too bad. I am anxious.

Ethan

In fact, my English isn’t very good. So in class, I can’t understand some words. So sometimes I don’t know what teacher means. When he asks me questions, I’m nervous. I was worry if I can speak English well.

Nash

At this week, we had 4 science classes and I usually didn’t know what’ the meaning of it. Once he taught us a lot of things, and then he asked me to answer his questions, but I really didn’t know what the answer because I didn’t know what he taught me, so I couldn’t answer the question. He told me to pay more attention in class. He thought I can answer the question but I didn’t listen carefully. I felt shamed during that time.

Jerry

I was sad when I disunderstand the English. When I in class, I feel bore because I can not understand it at all. And I didn’t want to ask others for help because it will disturb others and I didn’t want to ask teacher, too because I don’t know what I should say. I feel lonely and helpless.

Home

Thoughts on a Still Night - Li Bai 

Before my bed, the moon is shining bright,
I think that it is frost upon the ground.
I raise my head and look at the bright moon,
I lower my head and think of home.

Arts

Rare and lovely like a feathered or aquatic member of an endangered species: #4 in the list of desired student outcomes reads as follows-

A student should develop and increasingly demonstrate creative appreciation for the visual, literary and performing arts. 

Can we implement this outcome countrywide in China? : ) 
across the entire global community?


Woodstock School

Oracle Bones

Review: Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler 


If you read Oracle Bones while you are living in China, as I did, Hessler's insights and observations concerning the culture create a context for your own personal emotional reactions to the country and the people. 


For example, I asked several ex-pats about their adjustment experience during their first three months of life in China, and I received a similar response from each one of these ex-pats. Everyone, including me, shared a feeling of isolation and depression for that initial period of adjustment. Unlike other countries where I have lived, no Chinese co-worker or acquaintance extended a hand of friendship or a bridge of cultural support. Everyone I met seemed too busy with work or family concerns to notice me. Hessler's passage from the chapter "Hollywood" expresses my exact thoughts on the matter. 


"Without a sense of a rational system, people rarely felt connected to the troubles of others... In part, this was cultural- the Chinese had never stressed strong community bonds; the family and other more immediate groups were the ones that mattered most. But the lack of a rational legal climate also encouraged people to focus strictly on their own problems... A foreigner inevitably felt even more isolated." 


I decided not to study Chinese until I knew I would be in the country for more than one year, but the sadness of being linguistically alienated from the company of over a billion people by a barrier of words and characters is overwhelming at times. I admire Hessler’s acquisition of the Chinese language during his Peace Corps training and his description of the language learning process in the chapter “The Voice of America.”

“First, you established basic sentence structures and vocabulary, the way a painter might initially outline a portrait’s fundamental elements. Over time, you acquired more sophisticated words and phrases, attaching them to the existing foundation. It felt like living in a rough sketch of the world where new details appeared day by day.”


Overall, if you are an ex-pat living in China, enjoy the insight Hessler will give you on your own experiences- enriching the time you spend in the country. 

Pretty Fish

Changzhou B12 Bus Stop, Friday, May 04, 2012

I was on my way to Wanda Plaza when this warning sign entered my awareness. The feelings I experienced while trying to fully comprehend the meaning of the sign were common in my daily life here: wonder, confusion, an oppressed sense of squashed freedom, more confusion, and at last- a realization that I must construct my own meaning from a bad translation.

Jaded

White Jade in a Xi'an Shop Window

Definition of NEPHRITE from the Merriam Webster Online Dictionary
the commoner and less valuable kind of jade that varies in color from white to dark green or black

Jade -To become weary or spiritless.

April 29, 2012 

Simulated Oxygen

Why would parents strap a simulated oxygen tank for scuba diving crafted from balloons on to their child' s back? 


While looking for Megan and her tai chi master. we stumbled across this little girl. I wonder... if she fell into the water, would she float? and for how long? 


Red Plum Park in April 2012

Wisdom

Linda Ho- You are as articulate as you are wise my friend.

At its most extremes, I do not think rationality can co-exist with unyielding loyalty. Despite my doubts and preferences for "sanity," I unconsciously respect/admire those who possess that irrationality.