A Glorious Day
Translated from the Chinese
A glorious day—sunlight on everything
A white rock shines in the Vermont woods
That’s Joe Brainard’s grave an American poet
1942–1994 graduate of an Oklahoma high school
Wearing dark-rimmed glasses Who has read your poems?
Under the green mountains the lake is quiet the birds are napping
I remember water lilies summer near its end
When he died Kenward brought it here
A rock through the woods bears and fallen leaves make way
White like a bone in his memory no words
In the sixties they were here drinking
Smoking weed listening to the pines watching sunset on the hill
I touch the rock recoil as if scorched
So cold like the geniuses’ foreheads
Cool like a rock
In this world that burns like a furnace
Notes:
This poem is part of the portfolio “Wind Crossing Grasses: Poems from Poems from China’s Dragon Rivers.” The folio is an excerpt from the forthcoming anthology of the same name, translated and edited by Wang Ping, with a co-introduction from Gary Snyder (Kinship Poetry Press, 2026). You can read the rest of the folio in the July/August 2025 issue.
Source: Poetry (July/August 2025)