1) come Around San Francisco （With Another One） Poem by WorldPoetry USNB

1) COME AROUND SAN FRANCISCO
By Cai KeLin (China)

Always
Traveling busy
I could not find a single piece of gold
Back home with only
A rough
Rock of mineral

I left it behind
On the book shelf
Where my little daughter kept looking over
Everyday
What she was exciting about it
I wonder

A night
In some year afterwards
I received a call
Oversea from her
A poetry
She wrote
About that rock
Was published on her college newspaper

I was so not smart enough
To flatter her
Feeling that
She was not yet brilliant

2001/6/27


2) GIFT SHOES FROM MING XIANG
By Cai KeLin (China)


As a gift
You extended me this new pair of fabric shoes
Like two little sailing boats
With the heel as dark green as the River of Xiang
You suggested me to try them on

A month has flied through
Since the days of the Xiang embroidery
In the same fabric shoes
You had stepped into that scraper
With noisy sound
Even sat on the square ground
Silently alone

I have kept mine cherished
Wearing at each weekend
Walking along the River of Yangzi
With reminiscence of the floating waves in the River of Xiang
Guess how I looked like
With the new shoes on


3) XUANWU* (The Balck Turtoise of the North)
By Cai KeLin (China)

Xuanwu has filed away
Leaving behind but a shade
A pool of shade clean and clear
Xuanwu has filed away
Coming back occasionally
Even dancing over her own shade

I was a trophy player
A trophy player of time
Singing of the Xuanwu on my forehead
And in my heart the Lake Blue

Often I dreamed
In a click of fingers
I ought to be a beam of light
Between heaven and hell
Mile by mile
Chasing
Chasing the light flame inside the light flame
In the end
Evolving to the Xuanwu in the flame


*Xuanwu is the name of a star in the ancient Chinese astronomy. In ancient
legend, it was the God of North. Together with Qinglong (the Azure Dragon of
the East) , Baihu (the White Tiger of the West)and Zhuque (the Vermillion
Bird of the South) , they were regarded as the gods of the four major
directions. Xuanwu was in fact a black tortoise in the legend.



Bio: Cai Kelin（蔡克霖）， poet, he was born in Jiangsu. There are six poetry books were published in the past years. Now living in USA, he edits the annual poetry book called "Houston Poetry Garden".