(i)
ben ("book")
hen
horizontal,
the first stroke learnt,
made hand held in hand,brief
here, the last stroke added,
moving us from wood to learning.(ii)
yi (one)
one stroke
simple in singularity --fluid, the ink speaks
through the flowing reedlifting,
the hand hovers,
having marked more than paper.
First published in Fulcrum -- an annual of poetry and aesthetics (USA), No. 1, "A Map of English-language Poetry," 2002
Last modified: 10 July 2003