frogs are lucky

Frogs are lucky, I read the other day.
They eat what bugs them.
Photo: At a friend's swimming pool, Sai Kung

listen, live

We are meant to live.
Photo: A window in New Orleans

ice writing

I used to live near a pond, and in the wintertime, would skate there in the late afternoons. I miss the sound of ice and blade.
Photo: Graffiti, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

mica

Mica is one of the things I love most,
and to me, this lichen on a stump
looks like a pile of the silvery sheets.
I saw it last month and I will see it again tomorrow.
Photo: Stump, Pokfulam, Hong Kong

stranger, if

'Stranger, if you're passing me
and desire to speak to me,
why should you not speak to me?
And why should I not speak with you?'
Actually, I wanna fill the train station with song.
Text: Walt Whitman
Photo: Tin Hau MTR Station, Hong Kong

i wish you your wishes

Today is the first day back at the office after the lunar new year holiday, and there are many laisee. I like to say, 'I wish you your wishes' as I receive the little red envelopes.
Photo: Champagne at d' and p's home, Saikung

exquisite corpse

The other night, late in the night: exquisite corpse.
We created several together.
Take sheets of paper, each person writing a short bit, then pass it around, clockwise or counter, each person adding, but seeing only the preceding line, the earlier words folded from view. Stop when you feel like stopping, or when an end has seem to come. Read the poems from top to bottom, and especially in reverse.  
"The exquisite corpse will drink the new wine," say the Surrealists.
Photo: In a friend's garden, Hong Kong

wanna play?

Here are three toys. Enjoy.
Photo: By a household shop, Hong Kong

five a day

It's a new year, how will we fill it? 
Yesterday, I read that it's good to eat five colors of fruit and vegetables a day, and a few days before that it's wise to give five compliments a day, and I know some people who pray five times a day.
Any way, all ways, please choose health.
Photo: Handmade, Lantau Island

dragontail

It's the eve of the new year, lunar.
The red tail of the dragon, peeping.
Photo: A friend's driveway, Hong Kong

joy?

To me, art is not really to enjoy, but to feel, think,
consider, reconsider.
Sometimes the engagement is joy, brings joy, yes,
but more than that.
Photo: On a wall near Para/Site, a gallery in Hong Kong

drink long opinions

With Lunar New Year, there's a lot of pink and red.
Huge peach blossom trees in foyers. Pussywillow dyed pink. Red poem-greetings on either side of doorways. And a lot of eating. Together.
I think of a poem I once wrote on pink and purple: 'drink long opinions full of violets'.
Photo: At a dimsum meal, Hong Kong

altogether

Today, a meal altogether.
Photo: Before a meal, Hong Kong

rosy, cosy

Rosy is how I feel today, and cosy.
Loved, loving, and a big pot of soup,
maybe the same size as those potted flowers.
Photo: The view from the King Yin Lei mansion, Hong Kong

red cheer

The new lunar year, it's coming.
All the red cheer...
Photo: Looking at my neighbo(u)r's home

thinking of new zealand

Here's a moment of New Zealand.
Photo: A view from Titirangi, North Island

street frames

Maybe we can make worlds
in these frames,
with word, paint, spraypaint...
Photo: On a street, Hong Kong

moon scraper

At night, a huge light is thrown
from the very top of this building,
so for those of us below, we have moonshadow, whatever the phase
of the moon.
Photo: Bird and new sky scraper in my neighbo(u)rhood, Hong Kong

thinking about 29 Feb

The man who works in this lobby told me not to take any more photographs of his absence. And I ask: with the extra day of 29 February this year, Leap Year, do we own the day?
Do we have it for ourselves, or do we give it to our employers?
Photo: Lobby of building, Hong Kong

come and play

Sometimes, I'll bring a basketball here and play.
Photo: Marble Road courts, Northpoint, Hong Kong

hip hop Hong Kong

Last night I saw a film about hip hop.
It's called Hop(e)fully Yours.
And I write this to you, hoping
you might see it some day.
Meanwhile, I wanna see dancers occupying
empty units like this one, filling it with line
and joy and motion.
Photo: Unit for lease, Hong Kong
Hop(e)fully Yours is directed by Bryan Chang, film critic and director

fill in the shape

A square in the air.
A diamond below.
Photo: Construction site, Victoria Park, Hong Kong

cubes

We came across these white cubes
one evening. What would you put inside?
Photo: Before a trade fair, Victoria Park, Hong Kong

before the air

Four seats and scenery.
Photo: At airport, Taipei

place, placeless

Many times I have said I like not knowing, preferring the open, the unspoken,
the many, the feeling
of placelessness.
Photo: Somewhere on North Island, New Zealand

strands

I like how hair and plant merge.
Photo: H in Wellington

sidewalk frame

Cement, dirt, sprig, butt, and a wet boot,
wiggly at the top.
Photo: Northpoint sidewalk, Hong Kong

my heart is the moon

'My heart is the moon' is a line of Chinese poetry, and tonight, at a little gathering of friends, poets, singer-songwriters and storytellers, we will have many moons.
Photo: Tin Hau, Hong Kong

somehow

A woman in an old village has turned her home into an eatery. As we eat in her living room-bedroom, she watches television right beside us. She serves us instant noodles and processed siu mai, and somehow we need this, my friend says.
Down the hall, her son showers.
Photo: Snacks at Hidy's, 9401 6625, Pokfulam, Hong Kong

a long sleep

I feel like hibernating for a while.
Photo: An alligator doing just that, Texas

touch it

A new year.
Touch it.
Photo: Opera performer,Tai Hang, Hong Kong