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| Xin Nian Kuai Le， 新年快乐 GUNG HAY FAT CHOY 恭喜发财 |
February 10, 2013 -- Gung Hay Fat Choy! 恭喜发财 Today is Chinese New Year's Day, the first day of the first month of the lunisolar year in the lunar calendar, and marks the beginning of the Spring Festival, the longest and most important festival in the Chinese calender, which ends with the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month. The new year will be the year of the black snake. New Year's Day is a time to forget your grudges, reconcile with friends and family and sincerely wish peace and happiness for everyone. Cleanse your home, sweep away any ill-fortune to make way for good incoming luck.
To celebrate Chinese New Year we are sharing a poem by by Erik La Prade, from MOVIE LOGIC: Poems, La Prade's new book of poetry from Poets Wear Prada:
New Year’s Secret
On Sunday afternoons, the old Chinese
Fortune readers hang red cloths on the gated
Metal entrance to Confucius Park, Chinatown.
Since they speak no English, they each have
A woman to translate questions.
Most of the readers are refugees from
Pre-Mao China. Too old after World War II
To be reeducated, they would have disappeared
Had they owned land or houses,
Or dabbled in superstition.
I stand by the entrance, looking at their faces,
As several of them offer to read my palm.
Their pet songbirds, housed in wooden cages,
Sit on the lawn. Occasionally, the birds’ songs
Mix with the sounds of men playing mah-jongg
At nearby chess tables. After twenty
Minutes, it costs me ten dollars to learn
I’ll live to be eighty-six.
Fortune readers hang red cloths on the gated
Metal entrance to Confucius Park, Chinatown.
Since they speak no English, they each have
A woman to translate questions.
Most of the readers are refugees from
Pre-Mao China. Too old after World War II
To be reeducated, they would have disappeared
Had they owned land or houses,
Or dabbled in superstition.
I stand by the entrance, looking at their faces,
As several of them offer to read my palm.
Their pet songbirds, housed in wooden cages,
Sit on the lawn. Occasionally, the birds’ songs
Mix with the sounds of men playing mah-jongg
At nearby chess tables. After twenty
Minutes, it costs me ten dollars to learn
I’ll live to be eighty-six.
For your own fortune visit: http://www.gotohoroscope.com/2013-horoscope/chinese-new-year.html
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| MOVIE LOGIC: Poems by Erik La Prade
List Price:
$12.00
5.5" x 8.5"
(13.97 x 21.59 cm)
Black & White on White paper 36 pages
Poets Wear Prada
ISBN-13: 978-0615761237 (Custom) ISBN-10: 0615761232 BISAC: Poetry / American / General |
— ALAN KAUFMAN, author of Drunken Angel,
editor of The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry
"La Prade is a gifted poet, memoirist, critic, photographer, and urban chronicler of lost artistic and literary byways, with a historian's eye for New York cultural history and downtown avant-garde. Put simply, he dazzles."
— GARY SHAPIRO, journalist
Now available at CreateSpace.com: https://www.createspace.com/4146252
And on Amazon.com: http://amzn.com/dp/0615761232/
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