Today we celebrate the life and works of the Nobel Peace Prizewinner Liu Xiaobo, who is spending today locked up by the Chinese authorities for subversion. An empty chair represents him in Oslo at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.
Do print off this poem and pin it up in a public place or e-mail it to a friend. Go to Scottish PEN for more.
http://www.scottishpen.org/news
This would be a good day to join PEN, a dynamic worldwide association of writers pledged to protect freedom of expression and promote literature across frontiers throughout the world. If you contact us, we can pass on your details to Liz Niven, who has recently set up a South of Scotland branch of Scottish PEN.
Do print off this poem and pin it up in a public place or e-mail it to a friend. Go to Scottish PEN for more.
http://www.scottishpen.org/news
This would be a good day to join PEN, a dynamic worldwide association of writers pledged to protect freedom of expression and promote literature across frontiers throughout the world. If you contact us, we can pass on your details to Liz Niven, who has recently set up a South of Scotland branch of Scottish PEN.
One Letter Is Enough
for Xia
one letter is enough
for me to transcend and face
you to speak
as the wind blows past
the night
uses its own blood
to write a secret verse
that reminds me each
word is the last word
the ice in your body
melts into a myth of fire
in the eyes of the executioner
fury turns to stone
two sets of iron rails
unexpectedly overlap
moths flap toward lamp
light, an eternal sign
that traces your shadow
8. 1. 2000
