poem

Character Subtraction

by Xiaoly Li

愁 (Sorrow)- 心(Heart) = 秋(Autumn)

         Cast off the heart’s heavy grief—

         the crisp air and golden leaves unfold.

思(Thought) - 心(Heart) = 田(Field)

         Shake free the mind’s tangled vines—

         a meadow hums under open skies.

间(enclosed) - 日(Sun) = 门(Gate)

          Push past shadows to free the soul’s glow—

          a gate appears for my caged heart.

袭(Long Robe) - 衣(Clothes) = 龙(Dragon)

          Tear away the robe’s stifling folds—

          wings unfurl, a dragon rising through clouds.

悟 (Realization)- 吾(Self) = 心(Heart)

           Shed the weight of struggling me—

           glimpse the unburdened, unbounded heart.

时(Time) - 寸(Inch) = 日(Sun)

         Break free from ancient measurement: one inch time

         is one inch gold—the sun spills to every day of every season.

诗(Poetry) - 讠(Speech) = 寺(Temple)

         Words falter, then fall silent—

         a temple blooms where a poem prays.

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Xiaoly Li is a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship Grant (2022) recipient. Her poetry collection Every Single Bird Rising (FutureCycle Press, April 2023) was a Zone 3 Press Book Award finalist. Her poetry collection Wakening Between Worlds is forthcoming from Serving House Books and was a finalist in the 2023 Diode Editions Book Contests and the Word Works' 2024 Washington Prize. She has been nominated for Best New Poets, three times for a Pushcart Prize, four times for Best of the Net.