October 1, 2020 is the Chinese Autumn Moon Festival. Celebrate the day with eating moon cakes and listening to the legends of the moon. Watch Grant Avenue Follies of San Francisco Chinatown give their version of life under quarantine. Like the residents on the moon we’re kind of stuck. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun!
Go to: http://www.clarionmusic.com to access the link.
Clara Hsu’s first poetic play, Love on the Magpie Bridge, was written for the players of Clarion Performing Arts Center’s Summer Theater, 2019. Based on a Chinese legend known in the celebration of Qixi (Night of Sevens) festival, the play incorporated an ancient poem, a popular folk song, an art song and many classical and folk tunes played on the guzheng by David Wong. With an intergenerational cast the play was performed on August 5, 7 and 11 to the delight of the San Francisco Bay Area community. This year, Night of Sevens falls on August 25. Let us celebrate the festival of women, domestic skills and Mother Nature by watching together this fun and magical play on Youtube!
To understand the construct of a poem is to dive into the form and play with it. Like Leggos, take individual pieces, put them together. If the result doesn’t please you, pull them apart and rearrange.
The good thing about writing daily is that you accumulate lots of materials. Half-baked poems, one liners, singular words; they may be useful sooner or later.
Amy Clampitt in the Paris Review said she revised a poem up to twenty-six times. Mary Oliver: forty to fifty drafts. Did they save every scrap of revision? Were they counting? How did a poem emerge and change through all the manipulations? Was the sense of play always present?
“Word Play” by Jill Ault.
