Three Poets: Voices from the West Coast

In fewer words than History uses, Poetry tells us where we are, where we have been, and where we are going. It does so without a literal rendering, for the complexity is impossible to articulate, save in metaphors – the dark horse of language. In this slim volume, three seasoned voices from the Pacific Coast show us the joys of being here, in this time and place.

These three poets are bound by where they live on the West Coast of the North American continent. There are the urban poems of Koon Woon that ring of Seattle and San Francisco, where he is compassionate of those who probe with lonely eyes. He is a “weaver of dreams,” that no matter what “the odds,” or “however deep the night,” he “expects morning.”

Joneve McCormick evokes, through the Santa Barbara seascape of beaches, ocean and surf, sea birds, barnacles and rocks, things more permanent. She speaks of friendship as “a dam near my home, or a raging river. / I am lucky - / I’ve had both.” She speaks of love as something “soul to soul,” something that “moves without moving” – a “communion” no less.

Changming Yuan brings with him the ancient wisdom of China, and through crisp poetic devices transports us to higher planes of being and consciousness, giving a mini-course in philosophy as it were, and presenting a sumptuous Chinese banquet; Yuan literally transports us to that seemingly changeless land, where Fengshui and the theories of ying – yang, and the ancient science of “five elements” still hold sway over us all.