Returning to mother's village with poet Jane Wong
Bill Radke and KUOW poetry correspondent Elizabeth Austen discuss an excerpt of "Pastoral Power," a sprawling, image-driven poem by local poet Jane Wong. The poem is rooted in a trip Wong took as a teenager to the rural village in southern China where her mother grew up.
Sometimes, I think: can Walden exist in China?
Returning to nature is a luxury we keep, like this
floral soap I can't bear to clean my filthy face with.
"Pastoral Power" is part of Wong's first full-length collection, "Over Pour," published by Action Books.
Listen to the whole poem: