Poem: Chinese Legend

Books & Poetry

Tuesday September 16, 2014 Comments

Comments Print article

This week’s trio of poems is from Helen Fletcher, who read English at Trinity College in Cambridge and has previously had her work published in UK literary magazines and online.

Chinese Legend

Where is the way?
He points to the sky.
Where is the sky?
He points to his heart.

Letter Written on the Tasman Strait Ferry

Darling, I’m coming back.
I feel sick, looking at the mainland
fill up the horizon.

O Australia, if it could just become a biscuit!
The sand around its coasts – brown sugar,
as it crumbled, it would sweeten me.

Then I could grind my teeth on our small town
and no one there would see me standing, knocking
at my own front door.

This at least, in its white envelope,
at the threshold where you carried me,
will fall at your feet on our hallway floor.

Fiona

Moët for our maiden voyage shattered on your side.

Cupid is a liar who decides when to be blind,
passionfruits get hulled out, empty hemispheres left behind,
and I’m tied to the wick of a floating votive candle
and you are made of wax and

everything that I could do was not enough
to stop me wanting you,
who lit the touch paper and will rip
my rib muscles till I’m naked flame.

Helen Fletcher lives with her husband and twin daughters in the county of Cumbria, near England’s historic, world-heritage-nominated Lake District. Australia is close to her heart, because her sister lives here.

Readers’ original and unpublished poems up to 30 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to poetscorner@solsticemedia.com.au. A poetry book will be awarded to each contributor.

Make a comment View comment guidelines

Jump to next article

Support local arts journalism

Your support will help us continue the important work of InReview in publishing free professional journalism that celebrates, interrogates and amplifies arts and culture in South Australia.

Donate Here

Comments

Show comments

Will my comment be published? Read the guidelines.

. You are free to republish the text and graphics contained in this article online and in print, on the condition that you follow our republishing guidelines.

You must attribute the author and note prominently that the article was originally published by InReview. You must also inlude a link to InReview. Please note that images are not generally included in this creative commons licence as in most cases we are not the copyright owner. However, if the image has an InReview photographer credit or is marked as “supplied”, you are free to republish it with the appropriate credits.

We recommend you set the canonical link of this content to https://inreview.com.au/inreview/books-and-poetry/2014/09/16/poem-chinese-legend/ to insure that your SEO is not penalised.

<h1>Poem: Chinese Legend</h1>

<address><a href="https://inreview.com.au/contributors/compiled-by-john-miles/" class="author">Compiled by John Miles</a></address>
											
							This week’s trio of poems is from Helen Fletcher, who read English at Trinity College in Cambridge and has previously had her work published in UK literary magazines and online.
<h4><a href="#chinese-legend" aria-hidden="true" class="aal_anchor" id="chinese-legend"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="aal_svg" height="16" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M4 9h1v1H4c-1.5 0-3-1.69-3-3.5S2.55 3 4 3h4c1.45 0 3 1.69 3 3.5 0 1.41-.91 2.72-2 3.25V8.59c.58-.45 1-1.27 1-2.09C10 5.22 8.98 4 8 4H4c-.98 0-2 1.22-2 2.5S3 9 4 9zm9-3h-1v1h1c1 0 2 1.22 2 2.5S13.98 12 13 12H9c-.98 0-2-1.22-2-2.5 0-.83.42-1.64 1-2.09V6.25c-1.09.53-2 1.84-2 3.25C6 11.31 7.55 13 9 13h4c1.45 0 3-1.69 3-3.5S14.5 6 13 6z"></path></svg></a>Chinese Legend</h4>
Where is the way? 
He points to the sky. 
Where is the sky? 
He points to his heart.
<h4><a href="#letter-written-on-the-tasman-strait-ferry" aria-hidden="true" class="aal_anchor" id="letter-written-on-the-tasman-strait-ferry"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="aal_svg" height="16" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M4 9h1v1H4c-1.5 0-3-1.69-3-3.5S2.55 3 4 3h4c1.45 0 3 1.69 3 3.5 0 1.41-.91 2.72-2 3.25V8.59c.58-.45 1-1.27 1-2.09C10 5.22 8.98 4 8 4H4c-.98 0-2 1.22-2 2.5S3 9 4 9zm9-3h-1v1h1c1 0 2 1.22 2 2.5S13.98 12 13 12H9c-.98 0-2-1.22-2-2.5 0-.83.42-1.64 1-2.09V6.25c-1.09.53-2 1.84-2 3.25C6 11.31 7.55 13 9 13h4c1.45 0 3-1.69 3-3.5S14.5 6 13 6z"></path></svg></a>Letter Written on the Tasman Strait Ferry</h4>
Darling, I’m coming back. 
I feel sick, looking at the mainland 
fill up the horizon.
O Australia, if it could just become a biscuit! 
The sand around its coasts – brown sugar, 
as it crumbled, it would sweeten me.
Then I could grind my teeth on our small town 
and no one there would see me standing, knocking 
at my own front door.
This at least, in its white envelope, 
at the threshold where you carried me, 
will fall at your feet on our hallway floor.
<h4><a href="#fiona" aria-hidden="true" class="aal_anchor" id="fiona"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="aal_svg" height="16" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M4 9h1v1H4c-1.5 0-3-1.69-3-3.5S2.55 3 4 3h4c1.45 0 3 1.69 3 3.5 0 1.41-.91 2.72-2 3.25V8.59c.58-.45 1-1.27 1-2.09C10 5.22 8.98 4 8 4H4c-.98 0-2 1.22-2 2.5S3 9 4 9zm9-3h-1v1h1c1 0 2 1.22 2 2.5S13.98 12 13 12H9c-.98 0-2-1.22-2-2.5 0-.83.42-1.64 1-2.09V6.25c-1.09.53-2 1.84-2 3.25C6 11.31 7.55 13 9 13h4c1.45 0 3-1.69 3-3.5S14.5 6 13 6z"></path></svg></a>Fiona</h4>
Moët for our maiden voyage shattered on your side.
Cupid is a liar who decides when to be blind, 
passionfruits get hulled out, empty hemispheres left behind, 
and I’m tied to the wick of a floating votive candle 
and you are made of wax and
everything that I could do was not enough 
to stop me wanting you, 
who lit the touch paper and will rip 
my rib muscles till I’m naked flame.
Helen Fletcher lives with her husband and twin daughters in the county of Cumbria, near England’s historic, world-heritage-nominated Lake District. Australia is close to her heart, because her sister lives here.
Readers’ original and unpublished poems up to 30 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to <a href="mailto:poetscorner@solsticemedia.com.au">poetscorner@solsticemedia.com.au</a>. A poetry book will be awarded to each contributor.
 
							This article is republished from <a href="https://inreview.com.au" target=_blank rel="canonical">InReview</a> under a Creative Commons licence. Read the <a href="https://inreview.com.au/inreview/books-and-poetry/2014/09/16/poem-chinese-legend/" target=_blank rel="canonical">original article</a>.
							<link href="https://inreview.com.au/inreview/books-and-poetry/2014/09/16/poem-chinese-legend/" rel="canonical">

<a href="https://inreview.com.au" target="_blank" rel="noopener">InReview</a> is an open access, non-profit arts and culture journalism project. Readers can <a href="https://artists.australianculturalfund.org.au/s/project/a2E9q0000008PVN/inreview-sa-20222023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">support our work with a donation</a>. Subscribe to InReview’s free weekly newsletter <a href="https://inreview.com.au/subscribe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.
							<img src="https://inreview.com.au/pixel2.png?cc_article=poem-chinese-legend" width="1" height="1">

Copied to Clipboard