see, see

See, reflect.

See again. 

Photo: Tree and tadpole pond, Kaitoke, New Zealand

as

As we are, we are. Somehow, 
when I see a horse,
this is what I hear.
Photo: Horse, Bahia, Brazil

sleepless

All night the wind

changes its mind.

Photo: Above Phnom Penh, above Cambodia

hum, city, hum

                 we ask
           is walking and freedom the same thing?
                           the way we step
        into stride
                  with the soft scissors of our metronome arms
                      sometimes we hum
Photo: Tarragona, Spain
Text: The opening lines of the poem 'the act of walking'
in the series 'hum, city, hum' (Delicate Access, 2004)

play the day

The past ho ho ho days have been play, with six children and wonder, midnight doves, a large white polyester roll ball, 
watching strips of newspaper swirl as they land, shoulder rides
in a castle, guessing birthdays, stacking
colo(u)rs on the fork... 
Photo: In a playground, Paris 

beyond

Eyelids meet as I touch words.  

A soft darkness where peace has been prepared.

Photo: Entrance hall of Beyond Baroque (http://www.beyondbaroque.org/),

a literary/cultural/community centre in Los Angeles

Text: from 'Something Beautiful Might Happen' (2010) p 9

tree, tree

Tree, tree, stand

inside

me.

Photo: Below a Flame Tree, Australia

Text: Poem from the series 'to nature' 

in my book 'delicate access', page 101

ho ho ho

In Cantonese, 'ho' means both 'very' and 'good'.
Very merry... Very.
Photo: Cookies/Biscuits, before eyes and beards, New Zealand
In my family, we light candles + sing + give today, 24 Dec. Ho. 

twinkle, twinkle

Photo: Bromillia flower, New Orleans

The gardener told me he chose the flower for its Mardi Gras colo(u)rs.

I choose it for a different reason.

somehow, snow

I see snow and sidewalks, 
late in season, 
melting, dirty, scraping.
Photo: Wall and sea, Shek O, Hong Kong

effortlessly

                                            


































                                           Rain falls like flowers at my feet,
runs down the window of a parked car, effortlessly. I turn the
corner, every road has the shadow of a season I once loved.
Photo: Street scene, Hong Kong
Text: Opening of the poem, Sheung Wan, 3 a.m.
from the book, Something Beautiful Might Happen (2010)

synesthesia

Looking out these windows,
we are tasting dark cherries.
Photo: Queenslander home, Brisbane, Australia

writing is, as, singing

Photo: On a Wellington wall, New Zealand

open

What is a poem 
but an opening.
Photo: The window of the study in Thoor Ballylee, 
home to WB Yeats and family, Ireland

winged

Fly, pig, fly. 
Photo: Fujian, China

as if to say

then
he
kissed
me
as
if
to
say
he
was
sorry
he
still
loved
me
Photo: Chairs on a night sidewalk, Tai Hang, Hong Kong
Text: excerpt from the poem 'when he said'

extras

And the balance of beauty was wanted.

Photo: Three bustles from the 1800s, from the 'Fashioning Fashion'

exhibition, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Text: Excerpt of my poem, 'Beige keeps being born'

silver in water

Does moonlight ever sin?
Does a river miss the past?
Photo: Carp in pond, Suzhou, China
Text: Two poems from the series, 'To Nature', 2004

winter tree

Draw me a winter tree, the infinite delicate, silhouettes of black rivers and visible fingers, make a large winter head full of naked elegant thought.

Draw me, draw me a winter tree, with hundreds of muses reaching for the altar tip, knowing that below, roots make a mirror of this.
Photo: New Iberia Station, seen through train window, Louisiana
Text: The poem 'Winter Tree' was published in Delicate Access, 2004

man, horizon

In Chinese, the expression

'people mountain people sea'

means a huge crowd.

Photo: Gamboa Island, Bahia, Brazil

please,

Please,
a slow seeing
is the revolution of kindness.
Photo: At a hatmaker's, Hue, Vietnam
Text: an excerpt of my poem 'the act of walking'

river, tide, dine



Maybe it's time to eat some beauty

so we can make more.

Photo: By the Thames, at the home of a friend, London



laughter, frontier

I once wrote in a self-portrait
poem: How the laugh is needed. 
It's the last frontier.
Photo: Nun and roses, Sienna, Italy

line, skyline

Los Angeles: People homeless, handcuffed, H-U-R-T-S spelled in graffiti, the fearful passenger beside me says she will be met by someone at rehab, xiaolongbao, matzoh, mushu, palm, friendship, familyship, green cross for marijuana, bars on windows, stucco, smog, fifty-inch TV. This is the birthplace of my poetry, where rivers may be freeways.
Photo: A lookout in Los Angeles; the Hollywood sign behind me

what is left

I wanna make a song
or a mobile.
Photo: Adhesive letters left on street, Los Angeles

still life

Gimme poetry, blues and
humming solitude.
Photo: A metal surface, location forgotten

sun, vein, green

Green lives the need to respect. Makes grassland honest. Seduces moss. Affirms trees. And leaves decide its maze.
Photo: Sun through wild taro leaf, Hong Kong
Text: Excerpt from my poem 'whole' on the colo(u)r green

seeing, seen

Focus. Float.  
Photo: Shepherd, northwest India
Taken on a documentary assignment with 
Oxfam Hong Kong after 2001 earthquake

layer, prayer

Sometimes the photograph is nostalgia,

that pain and return.

Photo: Window, San Francisco



wide, wider

A Chinese word for 'thing' is
'east' and 'west' together. Wide,
wider, deeper. Please touch.
Photo: An A-bombed piece of glass from the Peace Museum, held by my sister elin in Hiroshima
An essay she wrote: http://www.japanfocus.org/-elin_o_Hara-slavick/3196
Her blog from 2008: http://elinhiroshima.blogspot.com/

mirror, mirrors

And so we dance. Giving, jiving,

loving, using, choosing, chosen.

Let's.

Photo: Laundry, Tarragona, Spain

(also cover image for 'A Lover's Soliloquy' by Eddie Tay)

on the train

Photo: On the 'Sunset Limited' train
near Texas/Arizona/Mexico borders

on the river

Photo: On a ferry across the Mississippi River

on the road

Photo: Red soil and trees, out of New Orleans

speak, solid

Photo: Mural, Ninth Ward, New Orleans
An area badly hit by Hurricane Katrina

louisiana, autumn, road

Louisiana: Oyster shucker, 'music goes right where we send it', delta, levee, swamp, police, horses, one-stop supermarket, bayou, ninth ward out by the lakes, 'let me tell you', Dixieland, zydeco, everywhere jazz, Deepwater Horizon, 'huge ass beer', silver Mardi Gras beads on autumn trees, 'you know what I'm saying'
Photo: Near Louisiana-Texas border 

jazz, diamond, door

























One day in New Orleans: Beignet, trumpet,
gumbo, beer, Katrina, sousaphone, y'all, parish,
streetcar, Mississippi River, all day music, night
Photo: The front of Preservation Hall, 726 St Peter St, New Orleans

agree, daily

Photo: Bus stop near Taupo, New Zealand

blue, buldge

Holding. Letting go.
Photo: A flower in Happy Valley, New Zealand

train, moon, loop

Feels like tornado land, warm wind among flatness.

I open all the windows. Dusk, we walk under train, moon.

We take the little u-shaped road under the bridge.

All of us gorgeous, rumbling.

Photo: After the train, Richmond, Texas



tree, beard, surround



Day two in Texas: 'beards' hang from trees, soft to touch.
Bald cypress, alligator, lotus, deer, duck, egret, cormorant, maybe two million chattering small black birds, one huge hawk with white-tipped wings, a prison, and our fat moon rising above what looks like an oil refinery
Photo: Brazos Bend State Park, Texas

time, room

One Texas day: Smokehouse, car, m'am, drawl, football, nail salon, lone star saloon, one hawk, big men in hats, studded his&her belts, kindness, Dress Blue Charlies, slide guitar, fiddle, flag, a/c, Whataburger, Sonic, mountainless

Photo: Once animals at the Swinging Door, Richmond, Texas

pink, pyramid

Look. Sigh. Laugh.
Photo: Parking lot, Giza, Egypt

nightwalking, nighttalking

He says, what are we

but our stories. And I

say, what I want to do is listen.

Photo: Cargo harbour, Hong Kong

skin, pond, brown

A few hours before a long journey, 
am sleepless with possibility. 
Photo: About to swing into water, Camden, Maine

gift, earth

To photograph is to touch,
receive, invite, give. 
Photo: A bag unopened, New Zealand

breathing, sleeping

In the town where these goats live,
bells strike hourly. 
Photo: On a farm in the evening, Germany

heart, street, free

The heart is a big place.
May it always be free.
Not parked, but moved, moving.
Photo: Between front and back of truck, Los Angeles

shadow, sand, door, sky

I meet a man, surnamed 'Self'.
I do not open the door.
Photo: A main street, New Mexico

city, light, night

Lit tree, lit building, lit clouds.
Just in case we no longer know how to see?
Photo: A view from City Hall, Hong Kong