The Pillow Book: 4. Disorganized Things

4. Disorganized Things

xxx The Botanic Gardens after a storm. The apartment after a party.
xxx Before the command to come to attention, the enlistees relax in various states of sleep, their rifles entangled with their limbs.
xxx When I cross the checkpoint into Johor Bahru, I cannot help observing that the trees that are planted in regimental intervals now sprout in confusion. The city has poured and set around them, and not they for the city. If the trees have given the pleasure of pattern before, they now surprise with their surge of green.
xxx Disheveled hair.

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Comments

Patricia Markert said…
Disorganized thoughts about how to praise your work, your ambition, your success, your diligence, your rigor, your discipline. I am in awe.
7:00 PM
Jee Leong said…
Patty, your words of encouragement mean a great deal to me. Thank you.
8:27 PM
Anonymous said…
Somehow, these poems seem very un-American. Then, Whitman comes to mind and his oriental leanings...even so, not this. It will be interesting to see, Jee, how in the future, this "listing" of exact perceptions (as in Pound and Yeats working from the Noh) will activate new ideas in your poetry. I think the future will be interesting. Hope you are fine.
5:12 PM
Jee Leong said…
There are very unamerican. I feel as if I am moving in a different fluid.
7:10 PM
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