Live Encounters Poetry & Writing February 2024.
Mirror, poems by Anna Yin.
Mirror
A house sits by the sea,
its windows watch out.
Night tides hit its wall;
a mirror shatters on its floor.
One broken heart
remembers your face,
forgetting its own past.
Could the pieces be put together?
How many lies must be told
to draw the loved together?
You grow old, grow quiet,
your eyes in deep blue.
Drinking in light,
you color
your own silence.
Recital
The lunar lamp dims…
my keys turn leaden.
Upon your touch,
black and white
slide into
a long soft sigh.
In my heart-lung,
crisp air still fills
its wooden frame,
vibrating strings
in response to
your overdue tune.
They say a happy song
needs a few keys.
But they are broken
by your fierce
crescendo.
© Anna Yin
Anna Yin was born in China and immigrated to Canada in 1999. She was Mississauga’s Inaugural Poet Laureate (2015-17) and Ontario representative for the League of Canadian Poets (2013-16). She has authored five poetry collections and two books of translations including Mirrors and Windows (Guernica Editions 2021). Anna won the 2005 Ted Plantos Memorial Award, two MARTYs, two scholarships from USA and grants from Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts. Her poems/translations have appeared at Queen’s Quarterly, ARC Poetry, New York Times, China Daily, CBC Radio, Literary Review of Canada, Denver Quarterly etc. She read on Parliament Hill, at Austin International Poetry Festival, Edmonton Poetry Festival and universities in China, Canada and USA etc. She has designed and taught Poetry Alive programs since 2011 along with her daily IT job. In 2020, she started her own small press: surewaypress.com for her translating, editing and publishing services. Awakening was a short poetry film produced by her in 2023. Her website: www.annapoetry.com