Saturday, April 19, 2008

It Is a Real Gift to Love

After close to a twelve month hiatus from my blog, I am back! In my absence, here is a lesson that I have learned: it is a real gift to love. To love Asian-American poetry, any kind of poetry, or any kind of art is a blessing. It is to feel that indefinable joy that most of us crave but can experience only fleetingly. Some of us try to grasp at this je-ne-sais-quoi by resorting to the deification of consumer goods, theme park vacations, or cliches like cigarettes or alcohol. But, at least in my humble estimation, these temporal stopgaps can never quite compete with that ethereal love of art.

It is a real gift to be able to share my thoughts on Asian-American poetry through this blog. I feel lucky to be living in a time of blogs. When I started this weblog way back in December 2004, I was greatly inspired to blog by the then-recent publication of Asian-American Poetry: The Next Generation (edited by Victoria Chang, 2004). Similarly, my return has been greatly motivated by the recent publication of Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia and Beyond (edited by Tina Chang, Nathalie Handal, and Ravi Shankar, 2008), which I plan to comment upon extensively in the days and weeks ahead. Also, hark, methinks that Li-Young Lee has a new collection of poems out as well, his first in seven years and his fouth overall, and I plan on getting around to blogging about it as well.

7 Comments:

Blogger RL said...

Good to see you back, Roger, and glad I didn't remove this blog from my RSS feed!

1:07 PM  
Blogger Mr. ChoiceofPatsaToppings said...

I just wanted to agree, it really is a gift to love, and have found love. I think this is an amazing blog, and I hope to see more of it, and maybe one day I can meet the amazing writer. :)

8:53 PM  
Blogger Roger Pao said...

Thanks a lot -- it's great to be back posting!

10:36 AM  
Blogger Bryan Thao Worra said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

8:37 AM  
Blogger Cipher said...

Yay Roger!

4:00 PM  
Blogger Bryan Thao Worra said...

Happy new year, Roger!

2:39 AM  
Blogger webdesign said...

really great love ur's
===========
webdesign

11:48 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home