3 Poems by Kongyin

Beaver

I am a beaver
hiding in seclusion
regardless of the weather
or the alternating seasons.
Waggling my flat tail
I stay content with
my reclusive life.

I have what I need.
I have done what needs doing.
This modest paradise
compensates for my hard work.

If the outside world
is splendid or miserable
so what?
No cause, no karma:
form itself is emptiness;
emptiness itself is form.

Happy or lonely
rich or poor
so what?
With my enigmatic smile
I face it all.
For what I care about
is the real Eternal.

The Lost Bird

The beautiful bird is gone,
gone forever.
When it took off,
we all saw its shadow,
and all heard its last song,
but none of us looked up.
Instead we pretended to be busy.
We are used to hiding despair
in our business.

Prayer

Lord
I ask very little:
please give me a tiny hut for shelter
a little bit of water and bread.
And if You give me an ox for farming
I will be missing nothing in my life.

After a day of labour
toward Your last ray of sunset
I will sing the sweetest song from my deepest heart
watching the smile on Your lips.

Lord
I ask very much:
please give me a richness of hope
an abundance of wisdom
and a surfeit of love.

So if I have no safe haven
nor water, nor bread
nor even an old ox as my companion
I will sing the sweetest song from my deepest heart
watching the smile on Your lips.

Bionote

Kongyin is an immigrant to Canada from China and holds a Masters degree from the University of British Columbia. She has published two books in English (Gooby and the Dream-walkerand Sun Grass) and four collections of poetry, two in both Chinese and English (The Lantern Carrier and Today is a Path) and the other two (A Simple Heart and Songs of A Mountaineer) in Chinese, English, and French.
Kongyin has published more than a dozen short stories about overseas Chinese. One of her stories, published by China Readers, was reprinted by seventeen additional magazines and later adapted into a TV show in China. Readers voted another of her short stories as their choice for most touching. In addition to teaching full time, Kongyin had her own poetry column in two Chinese newspapers: Vancouver Weekly and Toronto Weekly.
Books Written by Kongyin
---. Gooby and the Dream-walker. Cape Town: Kima Global, South Africa, 2011. Print.
---. Sun Grass. Cape Town: Kima Global, South Africa, 2011. Print.
---. Taiyangcao. Taipei: The Liberal Arts Press, Taiwan, 2010. Print.
---. The Lantern Carrier. Seattle: Tianya Literature Press, USA, 2011. Print.
---. Today is a Path. Guangzhou: The Milky Way Publishing CO, China, 2009. Print.
---. Songs of a Mountaineer. Guangzhou: The Milky Way Publishing, China, 2011. Print.
---. Simple Heart. Guangzhou: The Milky Way Publishing CO, China, 2012. Print.
Book Translated by Kongyin
---. Escape to Life. Beijing: Press of Liberation Army, China, 2005. Print