A Room Of His Own Poem by Chen-ou Liu

A Room Of His Own



A Haibun


In the poems we reveal ourselves. In prose others. - Phyllis Webb, Notebook,1969-1973


cold moonlight
books of poetry
stacked floor to ceiling

Hearing of my housemate's suicide was like being stabbed in the back with a sharp knife, and yet I barely knew him. Only his work and the scratching sounds of pencil on paper that came from his room. 'His noisy silence (in an emphatic tone) hangs over us like a long, dark cloud, ' one of my other housemates once said to me.

drafts of old poems
on the water-stained wall
a starry sky

One week before his death, I was standing on the edge of the table hanging a clock, when he passed through the living room. He suddenly turned to me, saying, "I have this insatiable urge to commit pencil to paper. It soothes my soul.' He went back to his room and continued to spin poems out of the gathering darkness.

Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Topic(s) of this poem: death,writing
COMMENTS OF THE POEM
READ THIS POEM IN OTHER LANGUAGES
Close
Error Success