The Government of Nature

Acknowledgments

67 Acknowledgments The author would like to thank the editors of the following publications for first publishing these poems, sometimes with other titles and in other versions: American Poetry Review: “To Those Who Would Awaken,” “Flying,” “Elegy for the Appaloosa’s Mother,” “Scrapple,” “The Ancestors Explain How Envy Grew,” “At Lake Montebello with James,” “Washing the Car with My Father,” “For James”; Artists and Influence: “Against Forgiveness”; Broom Review: “Predators”; Connotation Press: “The Ancestors Speak to the Cowboy Uncle,” “The Government of Nature”; Green Mountains Review: “With My Family at Dinner on Easter Sunday,” “1963,” “Petunias,” “Christ Church, Oxford”; Iron Horse: “Drowning”; New Letters: “Interpretation of Tongues,” “When My Heart Failed,” “In Raleigh’s Brownstone Hotel,” “On Hearing Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight,’” “Looking Up from the Naked Bed”; New Yorker: “Passing through Indian Territory”; Orion: “Leaves”; Poetry: “The Ten Thousand”; Poets & Writers: “The Path”; Poesis: “Tsunami”; Superstition Review: “The Pantry,” “If You Tell”; Under the Rock Umbrella: “A Dream of Emptiness”; Washington Square: “Weeping Willow,” “Evening Lounge.” In Chinese culture one always gives respect to one’s teacher, and so I express my deep and ongoing gratitude to Shiye Huang Chien Liang, who is the head of the Tien Shan Pai Association. I am one of his Dao disciples. My life was changed when the Fulbright Association gave me an appointment to teach in Taiwan for the spring semester of 2002 as a Fulbright scholar at National Taiwan University (NTU) and Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA). During my time as a Fulbright scholar at NTU, Dr. Chinghsi Perng was my chairperson in theater, and he gave me my Chinese name. My friend Bei Ta in Beijing later suggested a slight modification in the name. Hsing Pen-ning, Andrew Pai, Bei Ta, Zang Di, Yu Jian, Wang Xiaoni, Mindy Zhang, Lin Melusine, Eric Mader, 68 Michelle Yeh, Yang Tze, Lu Ping Kwon, Zheng Chouyu, Yu Kwangchung , Shi Zhi, and Maurus Young have all been of help to me. Liu Zhigong and Alister Inglis were my first teachers when I took on two years of formal study of Mandarin at Simmons in 2002 with the college option of auditing courses for faculty members. Afterward, in my sabbatical year, 2004–2005, I lived in Taiwan for eight months and studied at Taipei Language Institute (TLI) under Teacher Lai, Teacher Feng, and Teacher Li. TLI was founded by Dr. Marvin Ho and is managed by Eleanor Chang. Dr. Yu Hsi, director of He Han Temple and Monastery, gave me the space to live there for five weeks in the spring of 2005. At that time I wrote the poems that were the beginning of The Government of Nature, thus ending my seven year hiatus from my regular writing schedule. Joan Houlihan of the Concord Poetry Center generously gave me invaluable advice and assistance in organizing the manuscript of this book. Members of the recovery community and their supporters in various health fields who work to help survivors of childhood sexual abuse are of immense importance to everyone. Judith Herman and Mike Lew have made invaluable contributions, along with many other dedicated health care professionals. My students at Simmons College have been indispensable in maintaining the nurturing atmosphere of the classroom that has helped my self-discovery. A teacher learns by teaching. Friends from my childhood and adolescence have been loyal ever since, and there is not enough to say how much I appreciate them and their presence in my life. Members of my immediate and extended family have given me loving support and believed in me in my difficult journey over the years. They are my root and foundation. ...