Amazing, very creative experience. I have found the musical and performative results extremely moving.
Tour details:
Sun 10 March- LONDON - Purcell Room, part of "Women of the World" festival
Mon 11 March- MANCHESTER- Band on the Wall
Tues 12 March- BRAWBY- The Shed
Wed 13 March- BRIGHTON- Dome, Studio Theatre
Fri 15 March- OXFORD- North Wall Arts Centre
http://sounduk.net/event_page.php?eid=36
Text of poems:
Through
while
your breath becomes shorter
your
body grows tired
soft
skin gains more creases
movements
less fire
the
squirrels keep stealing
the
bulbs that we bring
mistaking
for nuts
what
we plant for spring
change
that will change
every
move every step
slowing
down holding on
letting
go of the breath
we
can watch it with sadness
we
can watch it with love
we
can hold it in quietness
we
can cry out 'enough!'
but
change keeps on changing
whatever
we do
the
moment still passing
as
life slips on through
the
breath become shorter
the
body more tired
the
soft skin the creases
the
movements of fire
the
squirrels still stealing
the
bulbs that we bring
the
nuts they are hoarding
become
tulips of spring
I
Ask
I
ask when they first kiss
maybe
one or two years after
she
tells me bashfully
such
hard questions to answer
She
points out a play on words
disappointed
I do not know
she
wants so much for me to understand
gently
kindly so
We
look at the picture
tiny,
one inch by two in size
the
vicars stand beside the couple
24
December 1945
A
choir sings at the wedding
It
must have been a lovely day
her
eyes closed she is listening
her
head nods knowingly
Graduation
wish
May
a star rise up to meet you
in
the origami folds
May
the road of paper lead you
to
a tissue house of gold
Not
everybody looking sees
(alive
and full of colour)
behind
her poise, authority
performing
father
remaining
mother
Where
the wind is always at your back
your
feet firm on the ground
and
God has smoothed the paper flat
with
the hollow of his crown
Not
everyone who looks can see
(her
face so full of colour)
past
the reserve, beyond the need
performing
father, retaining mother
(spirited,
joyful, free)
Edge of Bearable
I do not say
she does not let me say
family of voices, clustering
before the edge of meaning
tread cautiously
the edge of sense
the shell is porcelain thin
do not break through
here where we are
keep holding in
tread cautiously
keep sheltering
my mouth is stopped
from storms we do not speak of
the quiet of after
winds long since died down
debris folded into earth, rich brown
the quiet of after
life becoming new and green
the storms moved on
the winds long gone
I do not stray
she does not let me stray
beyond the edge of bearable
and so we leave behind
the weather that I never knew
and there is little walking here, less witnessing
here where we are no more
beside the edge of bearable
we sing we fly we soar
I
Only Look The Part In Photographs
only
just touching
your
language with my fingertips
see
how I stand, still, silent, awkward
failing
to claim the great the original chinese
so
many things you will not speak
so
many things I cannot tell
cloth
falls in folds around me
essential
buttons gone
I
fumble, cannot fasten it
I
disappoint, we disappoint
I
only look the part in photographs
this
hand me down that doesn't fit
what
was..
what
was not quite then memories now reeld back un saya ble
Circle haiku
before words see in silence
[before words see in silence
words see in silence before
see in silence before words
in silence before words see
silence before words see in]
Chinese Proverb
When drinking water Tong Lai Yuen died
from river See Yuen geography in memory
of our teacher Yuen thinking of favourite
consider origins See Yuen from where Yuen
river source the water comes
