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by wu wei Monday, Jul 15 2019, 9:49am
international / poetry / post

my calligraphy brush of fine
human hair dipped in carbon ink
flows and caresses silk and fine fibre paper
this poem is not in the words
but in the means producing words
that glide and imbue meaning
onto something that was blank

is it necessary to play with words
when the artifice is in the brush
and silk paper now decorated
with characters like the moving leaves
of trees?

the wise and sensitive see past the written
appreciating only the flow of characters
decorating unfilled spaces in mind and emotion
forming a perfect face to be locked in memory
defying the ravages of time

the artifice here allows readers to
imbue ideals and create perfections
in the museums of memory
accessed only by recollection
always safe as the sky

words insist regardless of all attempts
by soft silk and fine hair brush
to soften their power

focus instead on the flowing
rhythms and barely audible
sound that fluid characters make during
their creation

a lover's lock tied into the hollow of young bamboo,
silk paper and wrist
transmit more than the characters
they create