A Close Reading of Poetry: Who Sends a Letter Through the Clouds?

This is a poetic exchange spanning a thousand years, and a shared drink between the living and the ancients. In this book, you’ll find the poets and lyricists we know so well: riding through deserts beneath solitary plumes of smoke, or drinking alone amid autumn rain and parasol trees. I don’t just want to retell their joys and sorrows. Behind every moving word and line, I want to retrieve the warmth and heartbeat buried at the bottom of time’s river. I have also gently placed the poems and lyrics I’ve written over the years beside those of the ancients. Some answer a sigh from a thousand years ago; others stand alone beneath the moonlight. They are both a tribute to the sages of old and the voice of a later arrival, speaking of mountains and rivers, the passage of time, and the partings and reunions of life. I don’t seek mountains of historical proof, only a meeting of hearts. A letter from afar has arrived, and when you turn to this page, your reply is the one I’ve been waiting for.