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Tag Archives: poet

Elegy for Charlie

27 Tuesday Feb 2018

Posted by Betty Zhang in Poems

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

cat, death, elegy, eulogy, loss, love, memoir, memory, pet, poem, poet, remembrance

cat
You never liked that dry stuff,
Had a gnarled tooth one time,
Was always catching colds;
Had a dirty face, sneezed on me,
Left fur on my black trousers—
I never should have chided you
However lovingly I chided.
And now you’re gone,
Alley cat,
Gone I hope,
Where no mean bird
May reach your bowl.

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To my love on Valentine’s Day

14 Wednesday Feb 2018

Posted by Betty Zhang in Poems

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

books, f scott fitzgerald, literature, love, poem, poet, poetry, romance, valentines day, writer, writing

Fitzgeralds-Passport.jpg

Hair: blonde
Eyes: green
Height: 5”8’

Signed in your cursive hand,
Each letter a musical note
So soft and so lovely,
How befitting an ode.

But darling you’re black and white
And try as I might,
I can’t seem to get it right:

Blonde hair but how blonde?
Green eyes but what green?

5”8’ I can see in the mirror,
‘Kinda short for a fella,’ I’d say
If I didn’t already know ya;
We’d stand shoulder to shoulder, but
For you I’d make an exception:
A song by Leonard Cohen.

And to be perfectly practical,
I don’t have to stand on your books
To kiss you though that’d be cute—
Catch me if I fall, though maybe I would fall
Just to fall into you.
Then we’d both be on the floor,
I’d land on your chest,
Crease that three-piece suit,
Tousle your hair, loosen that tie,
Tease till finally you pin me down,
Messed-up hair falling in your eyes
Pale gold and baby emerald, diamond-bright.

Blonde but how blonde?
A darkish blonde I imagine, the prettiest kind Save for Marilyn’s.
Green but what green?
The clear bright green of a river at the height of summer I imagine, the kind doomed Lovers would like if I’m Wright.

You’d make a dashing actor Love,
Actually they cast those to play you and your characters:
Leo and Tom and Brad and Matt,
Million dollar men, young and beautiful,
Blessed with beauty and rage.

Hollywood’s love bloomed late,
Poor fate, you thought
Broke and broken, maybe long forgotten
—Never more false! Love,
You’re alive again, risen from the debt
They owe to you.
Your name, your books,
You’re Lazarus wearing Adonis’ face;
Boy, the shows and movies they make
You have to see to believe.

Your timeless quintet and more,
In jackets of turquoise I adore,
Crazy in love, j’adore
F. Scott Fitzgerald in elegant font,
Honestly I’ve never been so fond—

Oh! Tender was
Your heart till it fell apart,
Broken instrument I fancy
Mending into art!

Still art thou black and white,
Long ago departed from life.
Love thee true I do
Yet be thy wife
I never could—
All I can do is write.

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The millennial’s guide to contemporary poetry

08 Tuesday Aug 2017

Posted by Betty Zhang in Poems

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Tags

blogger, blogging, gen y, internet, millenial, online, parody, poem, poet, poetry, satire, social media, tumblr, twitter

tumblrwrite enter

a sentence enter

keep hitting

enter

 

post Tumblr trite, Continue reading →

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Max Errman, “Desperata: Prose for a Way Out of Life”

25 Tuesday Jul 2017

Posted by Betty Zhang in Petit Passages

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Tags

anxiety, desiderata, escape, life, max ehrmann, modernity, poet, poetry, prose, writer, writing

bear illustration.jpgWent to bed last night with the realisation that all the world’s a sham, except maybe the art of bread-making. Supplying fresh wholesome handmade loaves to the local community, donating what’s left at the end of the day to charity. Betty’s Bakery. No! That means Continue reading →

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Prose arrest

12 Monday Jun 2017

Posted by Betty Zhang in Notes

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

literature, poem, poet, poetry, prose, writer, writing

calliope muse poetry greek

I wrote

a poem

and sentenced

myself

to prose

arrest.

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Youth

02 Thursday Feb 2017

Posted by Betty Zhang in Opinion, Petit Passages

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Tags

change, empowerment, english, inspiration, literature, Opinion, poem, poet, prose, writer, writing, youth

indie-tumblr

Youth is vitality, excess collagen, fluids and oil from our pores. Our restlessness feels edgeless like the galaxy, scary and exciting like exploding stars, new like unopened books.

Youth is arrogance—we act as if we invented sex, and mock the old for their weary bones. But they were once young like us and was it not from them you and I and our parents sprang?

Youth is rage, against our predecessors’ norms, against our parents’ wishes, against the preachers and teachers who know not what it is to be young today no more than theirs did, against our own better judgement.

Youth is power: it is power harnessed from our vitality, arrogance, and rage. We can change the future because it is ours—because, if not us, who?

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Summertime Sadness

08 Tuesday Nov 2016

Posted by Betty Zhang in Beauty, Petit Passages

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

lana del rey, literature, music, musician, poem, poet, poetry, summer, writer, writing

carmen-lana-del-rey-roses-vintage-Favim.com-1725863.gif

Listening to Lana Del Rey on summer nights: a wearable mood / like slipping on a cloak of indulgent sadness / a shift of persona, swift as Mystique / a sinking and falling into place, like being swallowed into the depths of a dark rose, petals spiralling into infinity / memories unfolding, genuine or embellished, shrinking and blooming like youth on rewind / FIN.

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Who said demise was for the fall, and death winter?

25 Tuesday Oct 2016

Posted by Betty Zhang in Petit Passages

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

death, nature, poet, poetry, prose, romanticism, summer, writer, writing

flower girl tumblr.jpegI should like to die on a splendid day at the height of summer, under a radiant blue sky on a bed of flowers. If it were not for my morbid longing for the picturesque, I should not mind expiring as wildlife do, Continue reading →

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