Release Party and Reading!

July 6, 2018, 7 p.m.

Village Books

1200 11th Street

Bellingham, WA 98225

About the Book

In the winter of 2005, I drove my son, Moshe, to the airport in Seattle. When it was time for him to board his plane for Taiwan, where he’d decided to join a couple of his friends who were already living there, I shouted, “Go explore the world, my son!” We blew kisses and watched each other disappear into the ether. I never imagined the extent to which Moshe would fall in love with Taiwan, a gorgeous island less than one hundred miles off the coast of China. Today, in 2018, he’s still living in Taipei!

Sure, every now and then Moshe flies back to the Pacific Northwest to be with family and friends. But he always returns to Taipei, a city abuzz with nearly 8 million people, close to 2 million of whom zip around on motor scooters, including Moshe. Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to be able to travel to Taiwan. Moshe and I have explored the night and weekend markets of Taipei. We’ve sipped exquisite oolong in mountain teahouses; explored an offshore island filled with orchids, taro and goats; ambled through an ancient, abandoned village; clung to a swaying rope bridge across Taroko Gorge; ate lotus in Wulai and sipped Tawanese pijou (beer) under an umbrella on the beach.

All the while, I wrote notes and poetry in my journals and Moshe took photos. Xièxiè Taipei is a selection of my poems and Moshe’s photography from our travels around Taiwan, including Taipei. Xièxiè Taipei 谢谢台北, means “Thank You, Taipei,” in Mandarin Chinese, a city I, too, have grown to love.

谢谢台北

Xièxiè Taipei

The chop maker at the Jade Market smiles,

Says, “Shī is the word for poetry.”

“Word temple,” my son translates from the files

of pictographs inked in his memory.

 

At a mountain teahouse we sip oolong,

sketch ancient graves in tea fields below,

hear Zen monks chant noon prayers at Maokong

and a cat in a red silk bow howl meow.

 

Three hundred elders practice tai chi chuan,

as soldiers’ boots drum against Liberty Square,

and students wail for Chinese-free Taiwan,

while missiles of pigeons shoot through the air.

 

Night market t-shirts and stinky tofu,

with my sweet son, drinking Taiwan pijiou.

 

Xiéxié!

 

                                Found this lovely blurb in the Village Books newsletter today!                                                                              Books and posters have been dropped off.                                                                                                 Moshe, mooncakes and oolong are on the way.                                                We’re ready to launch in 11 days!

26, 27, 28, 29, 3o, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6