People Who Can Comfort The Dead Can

Reading Ngo Tu Lap's Poems, Terrible Nostalgia Wells Up In Me- Nostalgia For A Lost Time And A Far-gone Country, Nostalgia For People I've Loved, And For Creatures Of Forests And Rivers. I Feel Gratitude Too. War Is Over. Peace Arrives With These Beautiful Poems.

I Do Not Believe In Old Age. I Do Not Believe In Getting Tired.

The Way I'm Going Now Is To Focus On Peace, To Create Peace. As Sister Corita Said, "i Don't Go To Anti-war Rallies. I Go To Peace Rallies."

Be Careful What You Say. It Comes True. It Comes True. I Had To Leave Home In Order To See The World Logically, Logic The New Way Of Seeing. I Learned To Think That Mysteries Are For Explanation. I Enjoy The Simplicity. Concrete Pours Out Of My Mouth To Cover The Forests With Freeways And Sidewalks. Give Me Plastics, Periodical Tables, Tv Dinners With Vegetables No More Complex Than Peas Mixed With Diced Carrots. Shine Floodlights Into Dark Corners: No Ghosts.

When We Chinese Girls Listened To The Adults Talk-story, We Learned That We Failed If We Grew Up To Be But Wives Or Slaves. We Could Be Heroines, Swordswomen. Even If She Had To Rage Across All China, A Swordswoman Got Even With Anybody Who Hurt Her Family. Perhaps Women Were Once So Dangerous That They Had To Have Their Feet Bound.