Incense Tree: Collected Poems of Louise Ho

Contents

Contents Acknowledgements xi Sheung Shui Pastoral 1977 1 Hong Kong Riots I, 1967 3 Off the Train at Sheung Shui 3 Pop Song I: “At Home in Hong Kong” 4 Pop Song II: “I Am of Hong Kong” 5 Sheung Shui Pastoral 6 Babies and Mothers (at Tai Po Train Station) 7 Writing Is Bleak 8 Summer at Warwick 9 Boston, First Impressions (and Therefore a Bit Raw) 10 The John Hancock from the Top of the Prudential 11 To M.O.M.A. 12 Mountain of Wisdom 13 Cherry Tree Wood 14 A Confession 15 O God, When Do You Find Me Guilty? 15 Underdeveloped 16 I Hold My Past 17 Excreta Tauri (Intone the Title and Read the Rest at a Run) 18 Poetry Is Never of Emotion 19 The Sculpted Hand 19 Raw 20 When Tired and Sleepy 20 vi Soliloquy of Light 21 Remonstrance and Reply 21 Notes before Bedtime 22 Letter to My Brother 23 Miniature Trees 24 On the Double 25 Of Strawberries (From D. to A.) 25 Local Habitation 1994 27 What’s in a Name 29 Hong Kong at the Crossroads 30 Towards University Station 30 Home to Hong Kong 31 Canticle on a Drop of Water 31 Living on the Edge of Mai Po Nature Reserve 33 Hong Kong Riots II 34 “Cloud Gate Dance Theatre”: Three Dances 36 Remembering 4th June, 1989 38 Like Pilgrims 40 Jamming 42 First Stop: Frankfurt 44 Vase 44 City 45 The Blind Samurai 46 In the Warm Glow 47 Polite Conversation 48 Apple Tree 49 A Bit of Luck 50 Image 51 Jade 51 vii Clip Clop 52 Tombed-In 53 Colours of Corot 54 Consider the Peppercorn 54 Things Pentecostal 55 Bronze Horse 57 Mother Has Just Turned Seventy 58 Black Hole 59 Fragment 60 Well-spoken Cantonese 60 Soliloquy of a White Jade Brooch 61 After Yeats 62 Acrostics 63 Slow Rain 64 Apprehension of Beauty 65 For Foone, Brighton 1978 65 Discipline 66 The Cold Keeps Me Out 67 A Burning Inadequacy 68 The Hind-wheel of a Double-decker Bus 68 NoSwan 69 Prayer 70 The Long Frown 71 What Mother Taught Me 72 Three Men in a Lift, Not to Mention the Woman Who Didn’t Get In 73 The Passionate Lovers 75 A Neighbour’s Tale 76 To Grandfather (Monsieur Emmanuel Allaye Chan) 77 Desire 78 Once upon a Time 78 viii The Awful Belief 79 There Are No Monkeys Here 80 Time’s Pummelling 82 The Unknown Source 82 Stravinsky’s “Oedipus Rex” 83 It’s Been Snowing 83 For Every Mask 84 Unschooled 84 I Love the Child in Me 84 Soliloquy of a Madman 85 New Ends, Old Beginnings 1997 87 Migratory 89 Did You Know 92 On Seeing Promite on the Shelves 93 Conversation 96 January on the Gold Coast 96 Odd Couple 98 Chat 99 Rambler 100 Party 101 The Australian O 101 Knocking at the Door of the Aboriginals 102 Coomera Lines 103 At the Foot of the Mountain 104 Beginnings and Ends 104 Storm 105 Shadows 105 Tree of Life 107 End of Era 108 ix Walking 108 Island 109 Spirit of Place 110 Flags and Flowers 111 Extension I 112 Extension II 112 A Good Year 113 One Hundred Days to Go 114 Chek Lap Kok 115 Meeting 116 Hopscotch down the Corridor 116 Upon Hearing of a Friend’s Death (after Yeats) 117 Discomfort 118 My Crown Jewels 118 Tilting 119 Dr Hero Joh 120 New Poems 121 Reflection 123 I Sing of a Man 124 Incense Tree Aquilaria sinensis 125 Marching 126 Forty Years to Go 128 Skeltonics 129 Giants on the Land (Canada 2007) 130 Kindred Growth 131 How on Earth . . . 132 TSANG Tsou-choi “The King of Kowloon” 133 A Veteran Talking 134 La Reine Australienne 135 x Darkness at 4 p.m. 136 Three Poems on a Painter’s Works 136 Dance 138 Cock-a-doodle-doo 139 About Turn 140 Dusk 141 Askew 142 Sounds 143 Nests 143 Notes 144 Learning to Walk 145 A Poem Is an Object 146 A Poem Is Like 147 Curtain Call 148 Found Items 149 The Other Day 152 Afterword 153 Louise Ho: An Afterword by Douglas Kerr 155 Appendices 163 Introductory remarks to “Sheung Shui Pastoral 1977” 165 by Helga Burger-Werle Introduction...