Search Results for: China

Poetry by Patrick JenningsAug 7, 20227:00 am

Shadows

In the bright sun of day
I am shadow

A mask without a face
A smile without a reason
Laughter without glee

A sign of existence
Without presence

So I breathe
Bury my hand
In the hot sand

Shout out the pain
Of heat and grief
And emptiness

Give voice
To the being
Which once cast
The shadow

Until the voice
Becomes being
A vessel
For the light

The pain and grief
And emptiness
Become the shadow

Poetry by Patrick JenningsMar 14, 202410:21 am

Cacophony

I exit Jama Masjid’s exquisite tranquil beauty
Take a moment outside on the steps
To put on my shoes
Before stepping down
Into the cacophony of civilization

I was told, by many people
India would be a game-changer
Would alter my understanding of everything
In ways that could not be described
Only experienced

But I’d already spent 6 months
Bicycling across China
How much more
Could my understanding
Be altered?

More than I can describe
To those who have not shared
The experience of India
More than I can even describe
To myself

Poetry by Patrick JenningsMar 18, 202410:33 am

China Southern Airlines CZ329, on approach to Vancouver International Airport, British Columbia, Canada

Motion ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #361

To be in motion
Is my way of stilling thoughts
Stillness quells the pain

Poetry by Patrick JenningsApr 19, 202011:23 am

Curious Young Monk, Lagrangsi Monastery, Xiahe, Gansu Province, China

Life and Time

Photographs remind us
Of all the life we’ve lived
And all the time
Which passed between

Poetry by Patrick JenningsJun 29, 20203:05 pm

Patrick, Vagabond, Seman Hotel, Kashgar, Xinjiang, China

Vagabond ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #238

Note:
Rule change this week!
See below.

To move
Through time and space
By act of will

Undeterred and
Undirected by
Duty or responsibility

Led not by
Leash or force
Nor beholden to another’s wish

But to stay
In just one place
So long as restless heart desires this

Then move along
To some place other
There to find what’s there to see

Poetry by Patrick JenningsJul 6, 20201:09 pm

Winding Road to Valley Floor, Father Crowley Outlook, Panamint Valley, Death Valley National Park, California, United States of America

Winding ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #239

The road winds down
To valley floor
From there the way
Cannot be known

With scant resource
For alternates
My faith is firm
No other course

Now heart resolved
Courage mustered
With just one step
My fears dissolved

Poetry by Patrick JenningsMar 24, 20191:02 pm

Doorways, Forbidden City, Beijing, China

Courage ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #180

We span the ages
you and I
across all sense
of time and space
our stories twine

And I can’t say
where it began
or where it ends
or if it ever will

It drives you to
the edge of mad
(where you found me)
but with your ever
growing faith
it’s clear

Life is not so
rational
as you would like

Discontinuous
In fact

Time sometimes goes
from front to back
while space folds in
upon itself
and plops you down
in the middle of
you know not
what

Yet still you stand
amidst the fray
(such dark embrace)
to write these words
you promised me

Love is not so
rational
as you would like

But its beauty
drives you still

Poetry by Patrick JenningsDec 28, 201810:23 am

Blackened Earth, Highway G215, Nearing Liuyuanzhen, Gansu Province, China

Rolling through the Ebony

Rolling through
A land of crushed ebony
Tarry asphalt dividing
The slender white lane markers
And scrubby tufts of amber

I scramble up an ebony mound
To find a landscape of ebony mounds
Growing to distant mountains
All of the same ebony skin

“At least,” I think, out loud
Into the air so dry
It swallows up the words
Right off my tongue
“the falling sun seems less
Like a fire
On a cast-iron skillet.”