Poetry Potpourri / Perspectives

Rise Stronger / April Yee

And so, I crept on the ground
Small and insignificant
Curled myself
Into myself
For so long

Accepted crumbs off the loaf
I didn’t know how to deserve
For so long

Until my body took the lead
Over my mind
Reflected the weakness within
That became the weakness without
Shutting down systems of organs
A blood poisoned betrayal
For so long

Intruding upon and invading
A worn down heart gasps
Sustenance, sustenance, sustenance
Anesthesia flows through vessels
Soul floats above unconscious body
For so long

Eleven hours cracked open
Reparation of my heart
Fueled revolution of my life
Broken down, built back up
Cradled, shaped and molded, slowly
For so long

Until, until I rise strong
A firebird hatched, vulnerable and new
Learning to spread wings wide
Lifting up, up to the sky
In creation and celebration
Say goodbye to the life lived so small
Grieve and mourn what can no longer be
Praise and give gratitude for something more
That is me
Reflected back to me
I see my value now, self-worth that was
For so long
Pushed down inside, rise
Rise strong

And I feel you getting near
Asking me to know my value
My worth
Before you can know it too
And I do, I do
I revel now in my revelation
Believing that I deserve the whole loaf
Receive it even with honey butter

April Yee worked in the private equity industry for over 10 years, being based in San Francisco and New York City. After undergoing emergency cardiothoracic surgery which saved her life in 2015, April now works part-time and recently completed a holistic life coaching program to bring self-care and wellness practices to the forefront for professionals. April holds a B.A. in Psychology, a B.A. in American Studies, and a minor in Communication & Rhetoric from UC Santa Cruz. She serves as Board President of Kidpower International; is VP of Finance for the UCSC Alumni Council; is the Director of Membership for the OCA-SF Chapter; and is the Chair of the Dr. Jennie H.Y. Yee Scholarship Fund at Galileo Academy of Science and Technology. April enjoys reading, writing, learning, and connecting.

Animals / Paige Brooks

Breathe it in
Take in lungfulls now.
Fill your eyes with blue.
Tread the waterside and admire the view.
Over our heads in clear air
With little worry of interruption
They look down, see open range and
Find creative perches to stop, search, build.
Out of the thrush and foxholes they emerge
In this quiet moment and
Explore inquisitively, to
Find new-to-them wonders.
As too, do we, while we take in this fresh new world.

Paige Brooks is the head of HR for Plum, Inc., a Commercial Real Estate Lending firm and a graduate of the University of Texas. Writing is a past time, she has written about regattas, short stories and is currently writing a fiction novel. She is a member of the SFYC and lives on Belvedere Island.

dear wife / Grace Wing-Yuan Toy 蔡詠恩

Dedicated to my paternal grandparents, 黃耀璇 Wong Yao Syun, who was detained at Angel Island, and his grass widow, 伍齊愛 Ng Cha Oi.

Buy a name,
Buy a paper,
Buy a life…

4,000 miles
away from home
does not,
cannot stop
the heart...

there is not enough
gold here for
a chinaman,

there is only dust --
dust to sweep
sunrise to
sunset.

the white ghosts
think it can make you forget,
but it can only make you
think think think think

and plead with heaven
not to go
crazy.

how many days
can I work cleaning after others,
watching
myself in the dirty,
cra
cked
mirror --

a foolish man
dancing with a broomstick,
dreaming it is his wife --
fred astaire and ginger rogers
gliding across
the dance floor.

how many nights
before going to sleep,
I see the moon.
It was my friend once,
but now, it is only
white,
cold,

silent.

Grace Wing-Yuan Toy 蔡詠恩 is a Chinese American poet and writer based in Central New Jersey. Her work has been published in dIS*orient, and included as a winning limited-edition broadside in the collections of the Center for Book Arts. Grace’s residencies include VONA (Voices of Our Nations Arts), Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Centrum, and Atlantic Center for the Arts. She currently serves as Public Relations Committee Chair (Volunteer) with The Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County. More of her work can be found on Grace’s Twitter account.