Friday, June 27, 2008

Poetry Friday!



Welcome to Poetry Friday! It's my first time hosting, but I think after some initial scufflawing in the sandbox, Mr. Linky and I are now friends...

So... first some poetry and then the round-up!

There's this story that says during the Ming Dynasty, the scholar-official Zhao Mengfu wanted to take a concubine and wrote a poem to gauge his wife's reaction:

I'm a scholar-official
and you are the official wife.
Haven't you ever heard that scholar-official Wang had Peach Leaf and Peach Root,
Scholar-official Su had Morning Clouds and Evening Clouds?
Even if I marry a few beauties from Wu and Yue--it wouldn't be too much
since you're already over forty.
You'll still control Spring in the Jade Hall.

Zhao's wife, Guan Daosheng, wrote this poem in response:

You and I
have too much passion.
Where the passion is, is hot like fire
I knead a piece of clay into a you
and a me
then smash them
and mix them with water.
Again I knead it into a you
then a me.
There is you in my clay,
and me in your clay.
I'll share your quilt while we live
and your coffin after death.

He didn't take a concubine.

Both poems are from The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry: From Ancient to Contemporary, The Full 3000-Year Tradition ed. Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping

Leave your Poetry Friday links below!

at

28 comments:

  1. Sherry12:15 AM

    Thanks for hostessing. I hope you get lots of participation. I'll be back to check it out tomorrow.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous12:41 AM

    Thanks so much for hosting! I'm in with Anne Sexton and a story about our local wildlife...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kelly1:11 AM

    Love the poems, Jennie. They made me laugh :)

    I'm in with an original this week:

    http://kidslitinformation.blogspot.com/2008/06/poetry-friday-original-on-reading-anna.html

    And I'll take care of that sponsorship today, I promise! Good luck reading.

    ReplyDelete
  4. web3:24 AM

    Way to host! You're a braver woman than I. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Michele4:03 AM

    I'm in - with a celebration of Laurie Lee...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Andromeda Jazmon6:00 AM

    Guan Daosheng was a clever woman, a noble poet and a great wife. I am glad Zhao Mengfu recognized that in time! Excellent selection today. Thanks for rounding up poetry!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sara6:01 AM

    That poet-scholar had met his match, I believe. In every way.

    I'm in with found poetry from a library patron handbook. What? You don't read them? :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. tanita✿davis6:02 AM

    Whoa!
    I guess he DIDN'T take a concubine. There was a bit of violence in that clay analogy... Sure, she'd share his coffin at death, but if he added someone else to the clay? He might see the coffin sooner.

    Go, Guan.

    I'm in with a poem about music and rest, by Elizabeth Bishop.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous6:28 AM

    Fantastic poems! Reading them was a nice way to start the morning...

    I'm in with a review of Castles, Caves and Honeycombs.

    ReplyDelete
  10. jama7:18 AM

    Love those poems! Today I'm singing those lazy day blues with Elizabeth Alexander. Thanks for hosting!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous7:19 AM

    Thanks for hosting, Jennie. I'm in with 15 Words or Less poems--anyone can stop by and give it a try!

    I'm leaving very shortly for the w/e, but can't wait to read today's PF posts on Monday!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Karen Edmisten 8:17 AM

    Thanks for hosting. Love your choices. Guan knew how to make her point ... I love the image of the mixed, inseparable clays.

    I'm in this week, writing in the margins of a Billy Collins poem.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Tricia Stohr-Hunt9:00 AM

    Hi Jennie,
    I'm in today with Carl Sandburg. Thanks so much for rounding us up!
    Tricia

    ReplyDelete
  14. MotherReader9:07 AM

    Wishing I was at ALA, but leaving a summer poem instead.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous9:29 AM

    Thanks for hosting today! I posted a short blast from the past: a found poem (I think) from the Electric Company.

    ReplyDelete
  16. david elzey9:40 AM

    Is that talk of coffins a threat? Anyway, thanks for that, and for hosting. I'm acting all juvenile with this week's schoolyard parodies.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous10:25 AM

    What a great story and poems -- fascinating, funny, and immensely satisfying. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous10:58 AM

    Wow - what a lovely pair of poems to share. I loved the passion in the wife's poem; no wonder he didn't take a concubine.

    ReplyDelete
  19. eisha12:03 PM

    Dang, the wife's poem is excellent. Thanks for sharing - the story behind them is almost as good as the poems.

    7-Imp is in with "Wild nights" by Emily Dickinson.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Sarah Reinhard12:06 PM

    Thanks for hosting! Fabulous job, and what a selection. :)

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous2:19 PM

    Thanks for being this week's host. I'm in with A Night Thought by William Wordsworth at Bildungsroman.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Jim Danielson2:58 PM

    Jennie,
    Thanks for hostin and sharing!

    Jim D

    ReplyDelete
  23. Holly2:59 PM

    Heh heh. Great pair of poems.

    I chose an old favorite Naomi Shihab Nye (love her! love her!) poem for today.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Renee3:07 PM

    Great story. Great poems. I'm no poet, but I'm jumping in with an original this week.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Laurel3:24 PM

    I forgot it was FRIDAY!

    Thanks for the roundup!!

    I'm in with a literacy poem!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Becky4:25 PM

    Thanks for hosting, by the way, I did forget to mention it earlier.

    I didn't know you twittered! I've just started following you :)

    ReplyDelete
  27. Jennie4:30 PM

    Becky-- I actually just started twittering last night, so you're not at all behind the times. :)

    ReplyDelete
  28. Marcie Flinchum Atkins4:33 PM

    I'm in with Twelve Rounds to Glory, biography in verse.

    ReplyDelete