User talk:Chrischao

Poems by Chao
The following poem was written by Chao, a Chinese poet who also writes in English. This poem is taken from his collection Fate of a Grasshopper published in Australia, and it has also appeared in Cimerron Review, the American literary magazine, 1997.

Experiment in Australia

for Rodney Hall

I locked the clock

in the drawer

then tried to listen

like overhearing

the gossip

of a neighbour

initially

I could hear nothing

except silence

it was so overwhelming

I was suffocating

as under the water

I waited

quieitng my heart

a tick was heard

bursting into my ear

a suuden crack

of an egg

silence

peeled off

time began to shuffle

a dragging sound

became a march

treading

on my heart

I saw a coffin

moving out of a tomb

carried

by ants

instinctively

I opened the drawer

finding the face

of the clock

deathly

pale

1996

Chao's great strength as a poet lies in the simplicty of his chosen words, his truths and his imagery. The reader is repeatedly invited to take part in timeless and memorable expressions of deeply felt experience.

Elizabeth Jolley

Chao writes deeply imaged poetry with an eye for what is happening below the surface. It is moral poetry that engages with a lively and inviting intimacy. A Chinese poet writing in English, he has managed to combine the meditative and reflective tones of Chinese verse with the vitality of contemporary English speech.

John Kinsella

Welcome!

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