With a Heart of Stone: Selected Poems by Lin Lengshi

Author: Lin Ling
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: Lin Ling, a newcomer in Taiwan's modern poetry scene, explores the inner self, employs organic imagery, and captures the natural flow of rhythmic tones. This book collects some of her works.
Excerpt:
"Micro-Awakening" – Written for a Gambler in Your Chest, Monte Carlo's Night. The one I love is roasting fire, the pine branches he picked are not enough to burn.
Monte Carlo's Night, he took my hair, my spine.
["Visit"]
You need not be surprised at the companions of the past,
Shaking off ten years of indifference at your doorbell.
If time is a vow, I have torn up the record of time.
That faraway dust I was carried away by has been swept clean by the wind and sand of this small town.
["After the Show"]
A cold liquid, overflowing with rampant passion, drips from a pile of melting ice.
--After the Show--
I also came out, following them out, like a drop among them that scattered.
How cold the thought is! Who can find the lost flock of sheep on the prairie? (Perhaps ice is formed like this.)
I raised my collar. Even without wind, everything is still.
A bat without purpose flies out from the darkness,
And dives into another darkness, without foolish hesitation.
["Paths"]
You are horizontal, I am vertical.
We divide the four directions of the celestial sphere.
We come from where we have always been, pass through here, and meet.
We have met here after all, surrounded by water-filled fields.
A heron alights, quietly standing.
We chat in silence, saying goodbye, and promise each other with silence,
Climbing over those distant two mountain peaks, gazing into the distance.
(----A pure white feather gently falls down.)
When a feather falls, ah, then we both hope---
If happiness were like a white bird, it had quietly descended.
Yes, we hope. Even if they have wings......