Kubrick Poetry • March • Circle of Love

 時間 Time：2013/3/23 (Saturday) 3:00pm-4:00pm

地點 Venue： 油麻地 Kubrick電影中心一樓講廳

主持 Moderators：Polly Ho & Adam Cheung

詩人 Poets：Madeleine Slavick & Steven Schroeder

At birth, we arrive on the earth somewhat blank. As we grow, we learn knowledge and how to make friends. Time passes, and we enter society and start a career. Maybe it is then that we realize that life is a circle of love, that we are moving from one loop to another, some liked, others not. We connect people from the various stages of our lives, and also disconnect. We make smaller circles, then bigger, bigger. Sometimes, bigger than the imagination.

In March, we offer a manifestation of the circle of love. Madeleine, after moving to live in New Zealand, is coming back to Hong Kong for a month. Steve Schroeder is also visiting Hong Kong from Chicago. They were both born in the United States, but it is in poetry where they met, and now meet again, to share ideas on connections, circles and love.

MADELEINE SLAVICK

Madeleine Slavick has campaigned against poverty, taught secondary school, assisted unemployed people, raised funds for an environmental agency, counseled youth, published books, assisted homebound elderly people, and exhibited her photography in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.

She writes and photographs every day at her blog: http://touchingwhatilove.blogspot.com/

STEVEN SCHROEDER

Steven Schroeder is an American poet and philosopher who currently lives and writes in Chicago. His most recent poetry collections are Turn and (with David Breeden) Raging for the Exit. A bilingual collection of selected poems written in the Pearl River Delta during several years of teaching at Shenzhen University (Chinese translations by Sou Vai Keng and Song Zijiang) is coming soon from ASM Macao.

Website: http://stevenschroeder.org

Love Poem

(Adam Cheung)

It was a grayish cloudy Sunday but at Kubrick Poetry, love poems were in the air and somewhat surprisingly, people came not only to listen and to read the works of others, they were so ready to share the love poems they wrote.  We heard the poems of great names in Western literature in the likes of John Donne, Pablo Neruda, Leonard Cohen, and Irving Layton, sprinkled with philosophical excerpts of Roland Barthes.  We had an ad-hoc interpretation of what a romantic situation is.  Three boys then took turns each to share a love poem he wrote.  We talked about the classic Chinese poets and how in the ancient times, even the warring generals had a propensity for composing romance. And thanks to Polly, we had chocolate and a group activity!  With light background music, we concluded the session by producing a poem as a group.  Thanks to everyone who participated, and those who joined us for the first time. 

(Photos by Shing)

Kubrick Poetry • February • Love Poem

時間 Time：2013/2/24 (Sunday) 4:00pm-5:00pm

地點 Venue： 油麻地 Kubrick電影中心一樓講廳

主持 Moderators：Polly Ho, Adam Cheung, Florence Ng, Wong Wai Yim

Every day you play with the light of the Universe.

Subtle visitor, you arrive in the flower and the water.

You are more than this white head that I hold tightly

as a cluster of fruit, every day, between my hands.

It is a famous beginning of a love poem from the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda among his Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair. Love is the eternal theme regardless of time and place. Everyone writes about it. In February, you are invited to bring your love poems to share.

紅藕香殘玉簟秋。輕解羅裳，獨上蘭舟。雲中誰寄錦書來？雁字回時，月滿西樓。

花自飄零水自流。一種相思，兩處閒愁。此情無計可消除，才下眉頭，卻上心頭。

在中國的詩詞之中，唐詩多言志，宋詞才是言情。以上是出自李清照的《一剪梅》，寫出對丈夫趙明誠的思念之情，傳誦古今。

愛情是一個永恆主題，不論古今，不論國內或國外，總有人會寫它。二月份，我們譤請你們帶來與愛情有關的詩詞，中英不拘，自作或已有的作品也不限，我們一起談情說愛。

We Remember on Youtube

(recorded by Paul Wan)

We Remember

(Adam Cheung)

In our first Kubrick Poetry meeting of the year, we remembered the life and works of Leung Ping-kwan (Ye Si).  We simply gathered around in a circle and shared the poems that moved us the most.  Adam began by reading his favourite poem Rainy days in Sun Po Kong (新蒲崗的雨天) which captures the lives of the aspiring writers from the time of the poet’s youth, set to the backdrop Sun Po Kong. Polly recited At the North Point Car Ferry（北角汽車渡海碼頭）that painted a solemn picture of the North Point ferry pier. She also read a new found favourite poem called Pomegranate (安石榴) which depicts a fresh new images that she has never found in his Things poem before. Wai Yim appreciated the international scope of Ye Si’s works as she selected poems recited in both Chinese and French. It was observed that a lot of what we liked about Ye Si’s works came from the 1970s.

Oswald recalled the spirit of the times and praised Ye Si for his passion and persistence in cultivating a career in writing in a time when many were scrapping to get by. Helene took an alternative angle and shared a prose piece, which appeared as an epilogue of a cherished prose collection. Milan paid tribute to the poet by reading his contemplative sketch of the bitter melon. Near the end of our session, we were pleased to learn that a film is being made about the poet’s life.  Various participants have also announced that there will be a series of activities in the moves to come to celebrate the life of Ye Si, a poet who have touched all of us at a deep level and a writer who, like no others from Hong Kong, have attained literary immortality through his words, his observations, his smile, and his dedication to supporting the young writers in our city.

(photos by Paul Wan)