Black Lives Matter, White Lives Matter, and Brown Lives Matter! This book is an Asian American immigrant's memoir in poetry, also a Tao journey in poetry. Song Of A Lotus Leaf is one woman’s story of spiritual awakening as expressed through free verse, traversing the landscapes of relationships, nature, and past and present, as well as the juxtaposition of East and West. As Renhui recognizes the connection between Nature and Being, each stanza demonstrates how this connection can be the source of healing. Each poem unfolds, revealing the two main forces that drive her transformation—suffering, and the discovery of self-worth—as she learns to value herself and restore her spirit.
Song Of A Lotus Leaf is about the cultivation of enlightenment through purifying ourselves of our pain, illusions, and mistakes, and evolving into who we really are.
From the Poet
Song of a Lotus Leaf is a collection of poems I wrote in my journal over many years as I went through life. I have taken poetic license for some of the specifics, yet maintained a laser focus on retaining the essence of my writing. My life is representative of a new generation of people who have lived between two cultures. In this point in my life, my experience has been split almost equally between my first 25 years in China and the last 25 years in America. My life philosophy was formed during my early years in China, while most of my adult life experiences have been encountered in America.
As the poems collected in this book are written during the most recent twenty years of my life, many poems are relevant to the American immigrant as well as the Daoist student. Struggles such as homesickness, loss of love, divorce, challenging adjustments to new value systems, financial constraints, and subsequent emotional breakdowns were all thrown on my path. Miraculously, awakening occurred at the same time on different levels in my body, mind, and spirit. These poems are the evidence of those awakenings, and the accompanying photos serve as further documentation of those experiences.
These poems are the result of inward reflection, spoken in a simple, meditative, and authentic voice, with minimum punctuation and all in lower case, such as in the following from a poem called “Circles of Harmony”: life is full of confusing shapes /until we've learned to draw circles/from within ourselves— /our own life force.
Sample Poems
"Stress Made in America"
i grew up in china without much to eat / nor decent clothes to wear / or many books to read / yet i was time rich / i was worry free
now that i have a refrigerator packed with food / closets full of clothes / and rooms filled with books / i run out of time every minute /i am restless and anxious. . . . . .
"Queen or Me?"
one night i dreamed / i was the queen who ruled over england / presiding over a ceremony—
her solemn look / fancy hat / and a properly positioned power entourage
when i woke up / i was puzzled
did i dream i was the queen / or did the queen dream she was me / living an ordinary woman's life?
a cup of tea at starbucks /an ice cream cone at häagen-dazs / and a moonlit walk on the streets with my love
"Separation"
our greatest pain is separation /separation from our mothers / from our hometowns, our loved ones /and from our own hearts
innocence is lost / love turns into hate / joy gives way to sorrow / and wars and madness never cease
our greatest joy also comes from separation/because of separation/there is the individual life/your life, my life, his and her life/struggle for freedom/sacrifice for future rewards/animals, plants and flowers in never ending cycles
between pain and joy spring forth / god, allah, buddha, and / the oneness with it all
