Two definitions: Poetry is human speech. Poetry is maximal language. The Letter Box is both. In the ancient Chinese form Qing Ping, syllabic verse comprising two quatrains (4/5/7/6, 6/6/6/6), the poems are spare and lucid, eminently readable. Yet, dense in syntax, prosody, imagery, and allusion, they can be demanding, lending themselves to contemplation and explication. They are also funny and sardonic. The nostalgic voice, in reference to letters and other old forms, is wry and double-edged. The human speech is primarily mine – of course, the authorial voice. But each poem also has a speaker independent of me. The maximal language? That is also my responsibility. But it is principally your language as interpreters with the power – by reading them aloud – to make the poems your own.
The Letter Box
Writers, readers,
Senders, receivers,
Signifiers, signifieds,
Once connected us all.
Look in the letter box,
There you'll find a packet,
Open it now, and read
My hundred poems for you.
