The Sunday Poem

 

Happy New Year! Chinese New Year, that is. According to the Chinese New Year website, the holiday began last night with banquets honoring the ancestors. "The spirits of the ancestors, together with the living, celebrate the onset of the New Year as one great community. The communal feast is called 'surrounding the stove' or weilu. It symbolizes family unity and honors the past and present generations." On New Year's Day it is important not to clean or sweep the house, lest good fortune be swept away. Likewise, don't wash your hair today (it washes away luck) or use scissors (it cuts off good fortune). Wearing red is advised, for this bright color will attract a bright future. The holiday will end in fifteen days with the beautiful Lantern Festival, featuring parades of children carrying lanterns and other light displays.

In honor of Chinese New Year, we have two Sunday Poems for you:

The first is "Mountains' Ecstasy" by the Chinese poet Lü De’an, a contemporary writer (born in 1960) from the Fujian province. I first came across this gorgeous poem when I was living and working in Tucson, Arizona, looking out at the beautiful Rincon mountain range each day. To me, Lü De’an's poem perfectly captures the music, magic and spirit of the mountains. The painting below is by Shen Zhou (1427-1509). It's called Poet on a Mountaintop.

   

The second poem is something completely different. We are now entering the Year of the Pig in the Chinese calendar -- a time of good luck and prosperity. And this is a special Golden Pig year, which happens only once every 60 years. In honor of the pig, here's a poem from Roald Dahl based on the old folk tale "The Three Little Pigs". It comes from his hilarious children's poetry book Revolting Rhymes, published in 1982. The illustration below is by Arthur Rackham, from English Fairy Tales, 1918.

Comments

[midori]

And don't forget to order your barbecue piggy stamps! These special stamps to honor the Chinese New Year taste like a favorite Chinese pork dish when licked on the back. Scratch it on the front and it will smell like it too!
http://endicottstudio.typepad.com/endicott_redux/2007/01/celebrating_the.html#comments

[midori]

I also wanted to remind people of an early comment by Meg Fox about an organization that supports Chinese girl-orphans. Here's her earlier comment:

With Chinese New Year coming up, I thought I’d mention a fantastic organization called Half the Sky.
http://www.halfthesky.org
Their goal “is to ensure that every one of China's orphans has a caring adult in her life.” They also have a wonderful “Kids4Kids” section with ideas for our own children who would like to help other children.

[Martyn Drake]

I *highly* recommend Half the Sky foundation. An absolutely fantastic organisation, and one I strongly people to either donate or buy something from their online shop to help them out.

Within two weeks we will be going to China (Shun Yi) to spend a couple of weeks at a foster home for Chinese orphans to give them a hand with day to day tasks and to generally help wherever and whenever it is necessary. It will be doing something useful while at the same time seeing what the situation is like first hand.

We're also in the process of adopting from China and therefore have a great interest in Chinese culture (but we always had previous to considering adoption) and how it's going to effect our child as she (or he - don't forget it's not just girls that are affected) grows up in a Western society. It's a lot to take on board, but I'm ready, willing and able..

M.

[Andrea]

I love Revolting Rhymes (and Dahl). I used it for my 8th grade poetry project.