Sustained Musicality

on “The Northern Sun” by Sherwin Bitsui. Poet and writer, Bitsui is Navajo of the Bitter Water Clan, born for the Many Goats Clan. He is from White Cone, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation and currently lives in Tucson, Arizona. His new book Flood Song won the 2010 PEN Open Book Award. The Northern Sun is from Legitimate dangers : American poets of the new century / edited by Michael Dumanis and Cate Marvin.

In Bitsui’s “The Northern Sun”, I found a rich sustained musicality throughout the poem. He writes with a voice of a man drunk with words and yet each sentence is controlled with a precision of a maestro violinist.

Beijing Wants to Choose Tibet's Reincarnations

Introduction

From the onset of China's occupation of Tibet, the Chinese Communist Party's outlook towards Tibetan Buddhism has been of extreme suspicion and fear. Tibetan people's way of life and their outlook towards the world is inextricably linked with fundamental precepts of Buddhism. This common philosophical thread and a shared culture bind Tibetans into a unified entity giving them a sense of national identity. For Tibetan people this basic identity is inseparable from their belief in Buddhist principles, which "encompasses the entirety of their culture and civilization and constitutes the very essence of their lives. Of all the bonds which defined Tibetans as a people and as a nation, religion was undoubtedly the strongest."1

On the other hand, such unifying power and spirit become definitive threats to Beijing's authority and survival. As a result the Chinese rulers have been at pains to hammer down and eradicate Tibetan faith and identity from within their hearts.

A Message from Tibet

(sent to the leader of Tibetan activists in the US)

Premier Wen Jiabao is going to New York City to attend the UN Conference. China, besides not listening to us when we tell about the problems and the wrong Chinese policies in Tibet, has been carrying out a new policy to strike hard on the Tibetan intellectuals.

Thus, this time when premier arrives in New York City, the foreign supporters and the young Tibetan activists led by you must represent those of us in Tibet, who are denied freedom, to tell Premier Wen to improve situations in Tibet and address all other problems in Tibet today which are too many to list here.

Please let the premier know that, if China still continues to crackdown, the Tibetan people will get desperate and even wider scale protest than the one in 2008 is likely to happen.

Thank You.


(translated from Tibetan by Bhuchung D. Sonam)

Scattered Broomsticks

Are they red?
Yes.
Are they many?
Yes.
Are they strong?
Yes.
Are they brave?
Yes.
Can we beat them?
Yes.
Are we going to beat them?
Yes.
How are going to beat them?
Let's negotiate peacefully.
Let's wait for history to repeat.
Let's wait till they go weak.
Let's march in with guns.

Let's do this
Let's do that
Scattered broomsticks
Sweep no dirt.

The Blind Commissioner

8:30 pm Friday, January 2010
The wind whips upon mounts of snow
Piled along the path, the moon is
High up in the sky competing with the stars
Icicles hang down from the roof
Ready to shoot the earth

An advertising board reads:
“Waiting for the perfect job to come along can be
almost as frustrating as waiting for the next train.”
Waiting for the train
On a freezing night is frustrating too.

9:00 pm Friday, January 2010
The wind still whips. My toes are numb
My iPod plays Bob Dylan singing
‘Here comes the blind commissioner
They’ve got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tightrope walker
The other is in his pants…”

Then a pigeon
Lands on the advertising board,
Coos for while and poops
The pigeon shit runs down
Erases ‘t’ from train
Train becomes rain.

I am the blind commissioner
That Dylan sings about
Waiting for the next train
In cold trance

“I will not close my eyes even in death”

Truth is what I want to protect
Lies are what I want to hate
These are the goals in my life – Gyitsang Takmik

(Note: This is the abridged translation of the texts of the video appeal by the arrested Tibetan monk Kalsang Tsultim or Gyitsang Takmik. His book Miyul La Phulwai Sempa (roughly translated as: Offering My Mind to the Exile) was published in 2009.)

Translated from Tibetan by Bhuchung D. Sonam

***

Tibetan brothers and sisters from the Land of Snow, it has been 52 years since His Holiness was forced into exile and 15 years since the abduction of Eleventh Panchen Lama by the Chinese authorities. On these occasions in 2009, I have found the courage to take great risk to record this appeal against the denial of basic rights in Tibet. Tibet is now facing live and death struggle.