Thank you folks in Israel and Ukraine for viewing!

Welcome Hong Kong and China viewers of Five Willows Literary Review

We see a surge in viewers from Hong Kong and China to the Five Willows Literary Review site.

Thank you, enjoy, and please give feedback!

Franz Kafka interviews Tao Qian by koon woon

https://fivewillowspoetry.blogspot.com/

Franz Kafka (briefly) Interviews Tao Qian

Preamble:

Anywhere there is water

There I dip my line

Life can reside in depths

Truth is a bad deal, my friend,

It ruptures the Bohemian night

Fuzzy Wuzzy was he

But logically he was not he

My line drifts

Note:

Neither Franz Kafka nor Tao Qian knew of each other nor cared about fame. And they lived literally worlds apart in time and space. What follows is a brief fictional interview:

F:  Are you afraid of roaches?

T:  Of the kind that moved about, only the kind that moves in high places. I smoke them out.

      They pass legislations and suddenly illegal becomes legal, etc. They eat a meal, walk then as

      far as half a block, and then eat another meal.

F:  I understand that you are a famous poet on China. Is that correct?

T:  Look at it this way, my friend, if you are a successful traveling salesman of restaurant

      cookware, then I am a poet who has drowned himself many times in wine.

F:  I understand you gave up a government post to become a rustic farmer of chrysanthemums.

T:  Yes, my friend, just as you prefer Prague coffeehouses, I prefer anonymity amongst village

      dung. Confucius said there is beauty in all, except some fail to see it.

F:  Thank you, my friend, I must go see my friend Max now.

T: Good-bye, my friend, when you come this way again, look for the house surrounded by five

     willows.

Epilogue:  Friends can be as eloquent as the long Great Wall of China or as terse as a legal brief.                         

                  You can hear each murmur in a crowded courtroom or the silence of a bamboo leaf.

-          Koon Woon, March 6, 2020

.               

Grant from the WA State Arts Commission

We are indeed thankful for a grant of $1,200 from the WA State Arts Commission to publish the 2020 Chrysanthemum Literary Anthology and readings in the Seattle area. 

Good morning, Blues!

$1,200 Grant from the WA State Arts Commission

The WA State Arts Commission has just granted the Chrysanthemum Literary Society $1,200 for its Chrysanthemum 2020 Poetry Anthology and a public reading at the C & P Coffee in West Seattle. We deeply thank the WA State Arts Commission for its clear vision in meaningful and necessary poetry for the times we are coping with. 

Koon Woon ----------- nonfiction

TOO LONG A STORY by koon woon (draft)