Sounding Chinese at Inspiration Point

By Tom Clark b. 1941 Tom Clark

Nice spring day off big white cloud

At Inspiration Point escaping time wars

Poet takes book & wine bottle up into Mist Mountains

Since only available agenda is rhyming with silence

Seeking window of opportunity on a wall

I disguise what I have to say by sounding Chinese

Such as stars are now darker and farther away

They take deeper drinks because space is

Drying out afraid to think own thoughts

Administered citizen achieving condition of robot

In public mind things not so good these days

Nor in wrong run will it matter to Tu Fu

Tom Clark, “Sounding Chinese at Inspiration Point” from Light and Shade: New and Selected Poems. Copyright � 2006 by Tom Clark. Used with the permission of Coffee House Press, www.coffeehousepress.org.

Source: Sleepwalker�s Fate: New and Selected Poems (1992)

Biography

Tom Clark has combined the diverse roles of poet, biographer, novelist, dramatist, reviewer, and sportswriter during his writing career. In addition to dozens of books of poetry, a play, two novels, two story collections, and numerous biographies of literary figures, Clark's works include a book co-written with star baseball pitcher Mark Fidrych, poems about such sports legends as Catfish Hunter, Vida Blue and Bert Campaneris, . . .

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