Joanna Sit: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Other Than Longing

 

Every traveler knows a kind of despair other than longing
And waits by the gate of departure where other than longing

She thinks of a place she once knew–another country
Floating in a rose-scented air other than longing

Where the wild sparrow feeds on the sunflower’s heart
Then turns its eyes upward with a stare other than longing

Even the tourist can taste the bitterness of someone else’s salt
The desolation (climbing someone else’s stairs) other than longing

We are all orphaned islands the mountain left behind
Drifting across ruined seas broken spheres other than longing

Every exile knows the irreversible currents of the tailwind
That push the flight beyond a nightmare other than longing

Everything we can’t carry must be abandoned must be lost
And there is nothing to fear other than longing

At the end of the line we turn back for a final look
Take inventory of all that disappear other than longing

What in this world are we waiting for?
What else is there other than longing?

Every passenger at the gate answers the same:
I have nothing to declare other than longing

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Joanna Sit was born in China and grew up in New York City, where she lives with her family. She studied poetry with Allen Ginsberg and Susan Fromberg Schaeffer at Brooklyn College and now teaches Creative Writing at Medgar Evers College, City University of New York. She is the author of My Last Century (2012), In Thailand with the Apostles (2014), and most recently, Track Works. Her poem “Timescape: The Age of Oz” was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2016. She is working on an ethnographic narrative called The Reincarnation of Red and another book of poems called Fantastic Voyage.  ["Other Than Longing" appears in LiveMag! 21.]

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                        Hung Liu (1948-2021), Refugee--Strange Fruit: Comfort Women, Oil on canvas, 2001.

Comments

[Sr. Leslie]

What a beautiful poem!…Each line is exquisite…a keeper for sure and a longing to read more of her poetry…thank you Terence and thank you Joanna!

[Terence Winch]

Thanks for the comment, Leslie.

[Jeffrey Cyphers Wright]

What poetry is for and after. Yes! Joanna will be appearing this coming Saturday on the zoom Lit Balm series. Event invite on FB.

[Grace Cavalieri]

A ghazal of excellent beauty.

[Eileen Reich]

I love this wonderful poem.

[Bernard Welt]

Amazing how musical repetition can communicate melancholy. It's like a sad tune in print. Loved it.

[Brenda M Greene]

Congratulations on your recognition Joanna. You’ve put in words what many of us feel.

[Don Berger]

I love how Joanna manages to stay on the narrative/meditative beam while working in this really challenging form. It's such an astute, articulate and heartfelt cognitive path that she takes us down. And I love how she includes us all, opting for third person (she) and first person plural. All of us are the travellers on this compelling journey. A wonderful pick Terence!

[Terence Winch]

Don: thanks for the comment, all the way from Hong Kong.

[David Beaudouin]

Late to the party, but what a terrific poem (ghazal, per Grace)! It reminds me of the musical power of repetition in poetry. I think it was Gertrude Stein who said, "Repeating is not repetition--it's emphasis!" Thanks, Joanna and Terence!

[Terence Winch]

Thanks for the comment, David.

[Cindy Hochman]

This is one of the most beautiful ghazals I've ever read (and I've read a lot of them, especially in the past few years). There's both a sense of motion (travel) and stillness/calm/acceptance in these gorgeous words. This is a poem I will want to return to (or travel back to, as the case may be) again and again. And, as Jeffrey Cyphers Wright pointed out, Joanna will be featuring at the Lit Balm reading later today, and I'm very excited that I will be hearing her read. Thank you, Terence, for sharing this poem with us. And I can't wait to read and hear more of your work, Joanna.

[Terence Winch]

Cindy: thanks for the comment!