When I was young, Romantic poetry was very popular in China; we read the Chinese translations of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poems. I remember that everyone liked to quote his lines: “O, Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? “ We admired him as a passionate poet with charming lyrics and a revolutionary vision.
The online course THE GREAT POEMS SERIES SHELLEY founded by Eric Alan Weinstein is great and amazing. I believe it takes a lot of courage and effort to set up courses like that. In this fast-paced and cynical world, to teach and to learn Romantic poetry, especially long poems, presents teachers and students with extreme challenges. Most of us lack the patience and motivation for this. When I was preparing this talk, my fellow Chinese poets wondered if there was still an interest in this subject. They believe that Romantic poetry is out of fashion. Continue reading
glad to be a judge for Poem-A-Day Poetry Contest and attend the night to celebrate National Poetry Month
glad to read at Toronto Poetry Map Launch
Toronto Poetry Map Launch at Toronto Reference Library Atrium on April 15: the official launch of our online Toronto Poetry Map in collaboration with Toronto’s fourth Poet Laureate George Elliott Clarke.
Glad to read my poems about Union Station and Mill Street Brew from Inhaling the Silence (Mosaic Press 2013), Beyond the Soapstone from Wings Toward Sunlight (Mosaic Press 2011) are on the map, hopefully “Toronto, No More Weeping” will be on the map too.