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Reading Ngo Tu Lap's Poems, Terrible Nostalgia Wells Up In Me- Nostalgia For A Lost Time And A Far-gone Country, Nostalgia For People I've Loved, And For Creatures Of Forests And Rivers. I Feel Gratitude Too. War Is Over. Peace Arrives With These Beautiful Poems.

-Maxine Hong Kingston

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Reading Ngo Tu Lap's

Maxine Hong Kingston

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Reading Ngo Tu Lap's Poems, Terrible Nostalgia Wells Up In Me- Nostalgia For A Lost Time And A Far-gone Country, Nostalgia For People I've Loved, And For Creatures Of Forests And Rivers. I Feel Gratitude Too. War Is Over. Peace Arrives With These Beautiful Poems.

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When I Am Composing, I Try To Clear My Mind Of Having To Publish, Or Having To Sell A Book Or Find Readers. That Kind Of Thinking Gets In The Way.

Be Careful What You Say. It Comes True. It Comes True. I Had To Leave Home In Order To See The World Logically, Logic The New Way Of Seeing. I Learned To Think That Mysteries Are For Explanation. I Enjoy The Simplicity. Concrete Pours Out Of My Mouth To Cover The Forests With Freeways And Sidewalks. Give Me Plastics, Periodical Tables, Tv Dinners With Vegetables No More Complex Than Peas Mixed With Diced Carrots. Shine Floodlights Into Dark Corners: No Ghosts.

Gods You Avoid Won't Hurt You.

Long Ago In China, Knot-makers Tied String Into Buttons And Frogs, And Rope Into Bell Pulls. There Was One Knot So Complicated That It Blinded The Knot-maker. Finally An Emperor Outlawed This Cruel Knot, And The Nobles Could Not Order It Anymore. If I Had Lived In China, I Would Have Been An Outlaw Knot-maker.

Any Merchant Who Advertises 'honest Scales' Must Have Been Thinking About Weighing Them.

We're All Under The Same Sky And Walk The Same Earth; We're Alive Together During The Same Moment.

When We Chinese Girls Listened To The Adults Talk-story, We Learned That We Failed If We Grew Up To Be But Wives Or Slaves. We Could Be Heroines, Swordswomen. Even If She Had To Rage Across All China, A Swordswoman Got Even With Anybody Who Hurt Her Family. Perhaps Women Were Once So Dangerous That They Had To Have Their Feet Bound.

Attraction Eludes Control So Stubbornly That Whole Societies Designed To Organize Relationships Among People Cannot Keep Order, Not Even When They Bind People To One Another From Childhood And Raise Them Together.

A Story Can Take You Through A Whole Process Of Searching, Seeking, Confronting, Through Conflicts, And Then To A Resolution. As The Storyteller And The Listener, We Go Through A Story Together.

I Learned To Make My Mind Large, As The Universe Is Large, So That There Is Room For Paradoxes. Petals Are Bone Marrow; Pearls Come From Oysters. The Dragon Lives In The Sky, Ocean, Marshes, And Mountains; And The Mountains Are Also Its Cranium. Its Voice Thunders And Jingles Like Copper Pans. It Breathes Fire And Water; And Sometimes The Dragon Is One, Sometimes Many.

Daughters-in-law Lived With Their Husbands' Parents, Not Their Own; A Synonym For Marriage In Chinese Is "taking A Daughter-in-law.

You Must Not Tell Anyone,' My Mother Said, 'what I Am About To Tell You.'

How Unlike A Dead Fish A Live Fish Is.

...i've Learned Exactly Who The Enemy Are. I Easily Recognize Them-business-suited In Their Modern American Executive Guise, Each Boss Two Feet Taller Than I Am And Impossible To Meet Eye To Eye.

It Seems That Writing Chose Me. I Feel That Because I Know History, And I Know The History Of So Many Cultures; I Have Lived A Large Life.

There's Something In Life That's A Curtain, And I Keep Trying To Raise It.

My Job Is My Own Only Land.

No Husband Of Mine Will Say, "i Could Have Been A Drummer, But I Had To Think About The Wife And Kids. You Know How It Is." Nobody Supports Me At The Expense Of His Own Adventure.

You Can't Eat Straight A's.

Do The Right Thing By Whoever Crosses Your Path. Those Coincidental People Are Your People.

You're Too Young To Decide To Live Forever.

When Alone I Am Not Aware Of My Race Or My Sex, Both In Need Of Social Contexts For Definition.

In A Time Of Destruction, Create Something: A Poem, A Parade, A Community, A School, A Vow, A Moral Principle; One Peaceful Moment.

Adultery Is Extravagance.

In A Time Of Destruction, Create Something.

People Who Can Comfort The Dead Can Also Chase After Them To Hurt Them Further-a Reverse Ancestor Worship.

I'd Like To Go To New Society Village Someday And Find Out Exactly How Far I Can Walk Before People Stop Talking Like Me.

Joy And Life Exist Nowhere But The Present.

When You Raise Girls, You're Raising Children For Strangers.

To Shut The Door At The End Of The Workday, Which Does Not Spill Over Into Evening. To Throw Away Books After Reading Them So Theydon't Have To Be Dusted. To Go Through Boxes On New Year's Eve And Throw Out Half Of What Is Inside. Sometimes For Extravagance To Pick A Bunch Of Flowers For The One Table. Other Women Besides Me Must Have This Daydream About A Carefree Life.

The Way I'm Going Now Is To Focus On Peace, To Create Peace. As Sister Corita Said, "i Don't Go To Anti-war Rallies. I Go To Peace Rallies."

To Me Success Means Effectiveness In The World, That I Am Able To Carry My Ideas And Values Into The World--that I Am Able To Change It In Positive Ways.

Reading Ngo Tu Lap's Poems, Terrible Nostalgia Wells Up In Me- Nostalgia For A Lost Time And A Far-gone Country, Nostalgia For People I've Loved, And For Creatures Of Forests And Rivers. I Feel Gratitude Too. War Is Over. Peace Arrives With These Beautiful Poems.

I Learned To Make My Mind Large, As The Universe Is Large, So That There Is Room For Paradoxes.

Let My Life As Poet Begin. I Want The Life Of The Poet. I Have Labored For Over Twelve Years, One Thousand Pages Of Prose. Now, I Want The Easiness Of Poetry. The Brevity Of The Poem.

I May Be Ugly And Clumsy, But One Thing I'm Not, I'm Not Retarded.

My Aunt Could Not Have Been The Lone Romantic Who Gave Up Everything For Sex. Women In The Old China Did Not Choose. Some Man Had Commanded Her To Lie With Him And Be His Secret Evil.

And I Had To Get Out Of Hating Range.

I Do Not Believe In Old Age. I Do Not Believe In Getting Tired.

I Learned To Shoot More Accurately Because My Teachers Held The Targets.

I'm So Proud That My Offspring Became A Musician. I'm Full Of Awe That We Are Able To Have A Whole Family Live The Life Of Artists.

The Sweat Of Hard Work Is Not To Be Displayed. It Is Much More Graceful To Appear Favored By The Gods.

Before We Can Leave Our Parents, They Stuff Our Heads Like The Suitcases Which They Jam-pack With Homemade Underwear.

Ocean People Are Very Different From Land People. The Ocean Never Stops Saying And Asking Into Ears, Which Don't Sleep Like Eyes.

What Does Old Look Like? Sometimes I Am Wrinkled, Sometimes Not.

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