Celebrate National Poetry Month: Five Beijingers Share Their Favorite Poems

April is National Poetry Month in the US, and while we here in Beijing are, of course, an international group, we thought it would be nice to take this opportunity to celebrate the wonders of poetry. We asked a handful of Beijingers with connections to the arts to each share a poem they like and to say a little bit about what poetry means to them. We hope that as you read the poems they have chosen, as well as their musings on poetry, you will be inspired to engage in your own poetry reflections. 

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Zuo Fei – Poet
"Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver







Read the poem here.


A couple of lines in the poem struck me as lessons learned from life: “You do not have to walk on your knees / For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.” ... “Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, / the world offers itself to your imagination.”


Every time I think of the poem, I feel the power and the humility that the poem offers. The image at the beginning of the geese walking on their knees in the desert is heart-wrenching, and the last few lines about the geese announcing their place in the family of things are heart-thrilling.  


Discover more of Mary Oliver's poetry here.

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Guillermo Bravo – Author
"Canción de la madre Hogarth" by Osvaldo Lamborghini







For me, Osvaldo Lamborghini is one of the bravest and purest poets I've ever read. I think his poetry somehow transcends quality or what can be judged by one verse or another.


For me, poetry is important, but I think it's so important that there's no need to explain why – no need to convince anyone.


Discover more of Osvaldo Lamborghini's poetry here.

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Fenia G. – Poet and Consultant
"The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams







Read the poem here.


The experience, rather than the poem, impacted me when my 11th-grade teacher entered my 12th-grade class to deliver, in her excitement, a rebuttal to, or perhaps an explanation of, "The Red Wheelbarrow" and its function to "be" or "mean." I don’t even remember the originator of the rebuttal, but that moment exemplified the use and power of poetry. It can absolutely "be," and what happens if it also "means"?


I love all art forms, including visual and performative arts, but poetry is the quickest. It's the fastest, most concise, and most emotive way to transform feelings and thoughts into communication and connection. If ... when I do it well, it is impactful and visceral; it sticks with people, and that residue is what I think is important.


Discover more of William Carlos Williams' poetry here and here.

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Anthony Tao – Poet and Editor
"Talk to God" by Stephen Dunn







Read the poem here.


There are many Stephen Dunn poems I love, but I keep coming back to this one. I love the accessibility of this, the breadth of it — from a generalized "unnamed world" and "small enthusiasms" to the ultra-specific "silkworm" and "the old, stunned silence." I love that it is about the world's biggest, most metaphysical and timeless problems, backdropped by the ultimate thing, God, but is really about us: the earthly, the human, the humane, about our desire, our pleasures, our everyday. And I love the ending: an insistence on — even if it is as impossible as getting God to listen — fairness, on right desserts, and on self-determination.


Poetry is chiropractic for the soul; it realigns us on our path around the sun, through time. It recalibrates us vis-à-vis the world. And it helps frame our experiences, which I try to do on my poetry substack.


Discover more of Stephen Dunn's poetry here and here.

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Rianka Mohan – Writer and Former Banker
"Love Without Hope" by Robert Graves







Read the poem here.


I cannot recall when my love for poetry matched that for prose, but somewhere in my childhood, I discovered its quiet magic – the power to evoke moods and distill meaning through its rhythmic, exquisite form. Like a lucky pebble nestled in your pocket or a rare seashell found along the shore, poetry became a small treasure. It is craftsmanship at its finest, and great poets are master artisans and storytellers. I love that, for a fleeting moment, I surrender the reins of my heart to them, and, with nothing but words, they lead me on a specific and spectacular journey.


One poem that has etched itself deep into my heart is Robert Graves' "Love Without Hope." In just four seemingly simple, yet meticulously crafted lines, he conjures a scene so vivid I can see it unfold before my eyes. The social order and the raw impulse of longing unravelling a livelihood. Then the final haunting, romantic image – larks, freed in a way by love, soaring above the lady’s head as she rides, oblivious to the youthful bird-catcher, who is left behind to mourn both the loss of trade and the heartbreak of love.


That image lingers still, a tender ache that Graves' skill deftly balances with awe for the human heart and its ingenuity. I am grateful to you for giving me reason to rediscover this poem, and with it, my love for it anew.


Discover more of Robert Graves' poetry here and here.

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Abigail Weathers – Poet and Editor
"One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop







Read the poem here.


Those who know me know how much I adore Elizabeth Bishop. While she only published around 100 poems during her lifetime, she is rightly recognized as one of the most important American poets of the 20th century.

It is impossible for me to choose just one "favorite" poem, let alone just one favorite poem of Elizabeth Bishop. However, "One Art," one of her best and most well-known works, is one that I return to again and again, and which I often find myself reciting in day-to-day life. The poem is a wonderful example of many of the qualities that set Bishop's writing apart: her descriptive talents and attention to detail, her clarity of language, her absolute mastery of form, her exquisite use of voice... And, in characteristic Elizabeth Bishop fashion, the poem begins almost as if by accident. There's no overtly grand pronouncement – it seems quite ordinary. Bishop is seemingly nonchalant about the ordinariness of losing everyday items – keys, bits of time, etc. – and insists that this is all no big deal.


As the poem progresses, however, the items lost become larger, more important, grander in scale. Bishop continues to insist that all of this loss is "no disaster," but by the end of the poem, it is clear that this is not the case, with Bishop even having to push herself in the text ("(Write it!)") to keep up the pretense. This deceptively ordinary, emotionless – almost boring – still surface of the writing that almost but doesn't quite conceal depths of incredible and devastating emotional turbulence is a hallmark of Bishop's work. 


For me, poetry is an escape – a way to live a different life, if only for a few moments. It is an emotional connection point. It is a physical art. It allows us to know truth. 


Discover more of Elizabeth Bishop's poetry here and here.

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You can find more information about National Poetry Month on the Academy of American Poets website. If you want to attend a poetry event in Beijing Spittoon hold a regular poetry night every fourth Thursday of the month, the next poetry night will be on Apr 24.





Is there a particular poem that holds special meaning for you? Share the title and poet with us in the comments!


READ: 130 Years of Cinema: Beijing International Film Festival Begins Apr 18


Images: Academy of American Poets, Wikipedia, SLOWKING, Literatura Wiki, Arquivo Nacioinal (Brasil), Library of Congress (US)
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