107 places

A DAILY BLOG FROM 2010 to 2014
people in 107 countries have come to this blog : albania / algeria / argentina / armenia / aruba / australia / austria / bahrain / bangladesh / barbados / belarus / belgium / belize / bosnia and herzegovina / brazil / brunei / bulgaria / cambodia / canada / chile / china / colombia / croatia / cyprus / czech republic / denmark / ecuador / egypt / el salvador / england / fiji / finland / france / georgia / germany / ghana / greece / guatemala / honduras / hong kong / hungary / iceland / india / indonesia / iran / iraq / ireland / isle of man / israel / italy / japan / jordan / kazakhstan / kenya / korea / kuwait / latvia / lebanon / liberia / lithuania / luxembourg / macao / macedonia / malaysia / mauritius / mexico / moldova / mongolia / morocco / myanmar / nepal / netherlands / new zealand / nicaragua / nigeria / norway / pakistan / panama / peru / philippines / poland / portugal / puerto rico / qatar / romania / russia / saudi arabia / senegal / serbia / singapore / slovakia / slovenia / south africa / spain / sri lanka / sweden / switzerland / taiwan / thailand / trinidad and tobago / tunisia / turkey / ukraine / united arab emirates / united states of america / venezuela / vietnam

31 December 2010

see, see

See, reflect.
See again. 
Photo: Tree and tadpole pond, Kaitoke, New Zealand

30 December 2010

as

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

29 December 2010

sleepless

All night the wind
changes its mind.
Photo: Above Phnom Penh, above Cambodia

28 December 2010

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)

27 December 2010

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 

26 December 2010

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

25 December 2010

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

24 December 2010

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. 

23 December 2010

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.

22 December 2010

somehow, snow

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

21 December 2010

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)



20 December 2010

synesthesia



















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

18 December 2010

open







































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

16 December 2010

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'

15 December 2010

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'

14 December 2010

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

13 December 2010

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

12 December 2010

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'

10 December 2010

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

09 December 2010

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

08 December 2010

still life





















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

07 December 2010

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

06 December 2010

seeing, seen







































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

05 December 2010

layer, prayer

Sometimes the photograph is nostalgia,
that pain and return.
Photo: Window, San Francisco


04 December 2010

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/

03 December 2010

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)

02 December 2010

29 November 2010

speak, solid


















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

28 November 2010

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 

27 November 2010

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

25 November 2010

24 November 2010

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




23 November 2010

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

22 November 2010

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

20 November 2010

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

19 November 2010

skin, pond, brown

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

18 November 2010

gift, earth


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

17 November 2010

breathing, sleeping

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

16 November 2010

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

15 November 2010

shadow, sand, door, sky

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

14 November 2010

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