Love in you is not conditional,
\nbut a heart\u2019s love.
\nA poet\u2019s love with the embrace
\nof childhood.
\nI can see the roads
\nthat converged in you.
\nThe poems you wrote are not
\neasy poems,
\nbut the theater of your life,
\nsetting its stage
\non which you arranged
\nchairs and tables.
\nThe clothes your family wore.
\nThe expressions of a gaze.
\nThe luster of hair.
\nMouths shaped by catastrophe and joy,
\ngrimaces and sweet remorse.<\/p>\n
I am so taken by their Asian faces,
\nthe beautiful darkness of their eyes,
\nthe homilies of everyday exchanges
\nwith your father.
\nThe images of your mother\u2019s words,
\nthe empty chair of your brother.
\nThe losses that bled your
\nfamily dry,
\nand their salvation from
\npestilence and murder.
\nThe broken promises of faith.<\/p>\n
The delicate shadow
\nof an ancient culture,
\nand the lights lowered on the stage
\nuntil only you are speaking.
\nUntil only you know how severe
\nthe pain,
\nhow huge the love inside you,
\nhow awkward the faith
\nyou put in words,
\nas if every poem were written
\nas if it might be the last.
\nOr the first of some new house
\nto enter,
\nsome new beginning,
\nwhere life rises like a Phoenix,
\nas in your poem of love,
\nbraiding your beloved\u2019s hair.
\nYou bring back the courage
\nof the gentleness you were
\nborn with.<\/p>\n
Poems,
\nlittle ships set upon the water
\nto be found on another shore,
\nby others like myself,
\nsitting in the audience
\nand crying,
\nthat you lived at all,
\nsurvived,
\nto restore my compassion
\nfor humanity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Love in you is not conditional, but a heart\u2019s love. A poet\u2019s love with the embrace of childhood. I can see the roads that converged…<\/p>\n