Little Red Books & Some Poetry Potpourri
A couple short videos including some poetry reading
Hello, Friends!
Today I recorded a little video about the Chinese app RedNote and some brief context for The Little Red Book, a key symbol during China’s Cultural Revolution.
Below that, you will find another video of me reading some recently written poetry along with the text of the poems.
There are no new poetry comics this week, but I did publish a personal essay on Medium with some haiku comics, and you can read it for free with this link or by clicking the image below:
Mom/Mother
Mom and mother
shared a body but,
were separated by an
incomprehensible chasm.
They’re both buried now,
and when I miss Mom,
I eat a handful of semi-sweet
chocolate chips
because they taste like
her love.Selection of Around Town Haiku holiday lights still cling tight to front porch eaves of happy houses late afternoon gray skies—air stagnation with no precipitation desaturated leaf litter covers the ground joy of change is gone blackbird hard at work hunting for food on the lawn— watched by poet moss surrounds the base of a bare, ancient oak tree blanketing its roots dull mid-afternoon the songbirds are all napping— cell phones are chirping a bright yellow door invites visitors to a plain two-story house for want of a breeze, long-dead leaves dangle from limbs of motionless trees afternoon joggers try to jump-start stagnate air with heavy breathing haze lingers over my mind and my valley, low visibility
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Cheers,
I particularly enjoyed your haiku about birds becoming quiet in the afternoon only for phones to begin chirping. Great metaphor and humor.
Excellent post! Thanks for the history lesson on China. It is ironic indeed that instead of TIKTok people are opting for "the Little Red Book." In terms of historical analogies to what's going on in the US, the Chinese Cultural Revolution is very apt. Where they had a violent cult of personality that carried around a little red book, which at least encouraged literacy, the US now has a violent cult of personality that carries around little red hats and relies on deranged tweets. Oy Gavolt! Also, I wonder will be the "Gang of Four" that will be held responsible in the future for the consequences of our ill-conceived, destructive cult of personality?