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Returning to mother's village with poet Jane Wong

caption: Poet Jane Wong
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Poet Jane Wong
Courtesy of Helene Christensen

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:

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