Arthur Leung


The Tree Remembers

Night closed, I returned my memoir to the tree,
how birds nested in it, fed little ones
just as my parents bred theirs, till I became
a concrete man learning to listen to wind.

How birds nested in it, fed little ones,
none of that routine was wasted like leaves.
A concrete man learning to listen to wind,
I lived the common air I thought was a lie.

None of that routine was wasted like leaves,
each day I prayed rain to feed the children.
I lived the common air I thought was a lie
alone, and wrote on sheets of recycled wood.

Each day I prayed rain to feed the children
just as my parents bred theirs, till I became
alone, and wrote on sheets of recycled wood.
Night closed, I returned my memoir to the tree.

Arthur Leung was born and raised in Hong Kong. He regularly presents reading of his poetry and has had his poems published in anthologies such as Hong Kong U Writing and Fifty-Fifty, as well as in numerous magazines and journals including Smartish Pace, Yale Anglers’ Journal, Loch Raven Review, Existere, Paper Wasp, Bravado, Taj Mahal Review‏, Poetry Kanto, QLRS, Crannog Literary Magazine, Pulsar Poetry Magazine, Words-Myth, Magma Poetry and elsewhere. Leung has served as external editor for Yuan Yang and as guest poetry editor for Cha. He was a finalist for the 2007 Erskine J. Poetry Prize and a winner of the 2008 Edwin Morgan International Poetry Competition.

 
 
 
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