In “My Muse” Damm likens writing poetry to a flower in the sun open to “the giddy bee’s delight.” In “Ars Poetica” a poem should be like the subtly changing ever lengthening shadow of a pear on the kitchen table. Here, one finds playful verse in love with the sound of language, as in “The Wijita” and “Glossalalia.” The title poem, “Guanyin,” is a recognition of the similarity of Christian and Chinese Buddhist iconography.
Gene Damm is Founder and Executive Director of the Lijiang Teachers College Scholarship Fund and President of the Friends of the Albany Public Library. A collection of his short stories will appear later this year.
