Los Angeles, Manila, Đà Nẵng

By Cathy Linh Che

California drought withering the basins,
the hills ready to ignite. Oh, stupid ways

I’ve loved and unraveled myself.
I, a parched field, and not a spit of rain.

I announced to a room of strangers,
I’ve never loved anyone more.

Now he and I no longer speak.

Outside: Manila, 40 years
after my parents’ first arrival.

I deplane where they debarked.
At customs, I am given a sheet warning of MERS—

in ’75, my parents received fishermen’s lunches,
a bottle of fish sauce. They couldn’t enter

until they were vaccinated. My mother, 22,
newly emptied of a stillborn daughter.

In Đà Nẵng, my cousin has become unrecognizable
after my four year absence. His teeth, at 21,

have begun to rot. His face swollen over.
I want to shield him from his terrible life.

Tazed at 15 by the cops until he pissed himself.
So beaten in the mental institution, that family had to

bring him home. His mother always near tears
when I ask, How are you doing?

You want to know what survivorhood looks like?
It’s not romantic. The corn drying huskless

in the front yard. The ducks chasing each other in the back.
The thick arms of a woman who will carry bricks

for the rest of her life. The plainness with which
she speaks of hardship. The bricks aren’t a metaphor

for the weight she carries. Ánh, which means light,
is sick, and cannot work,

but instead goes wandering the neighborhood,
eating other people’s food, bloating

his mother’s unpayable debts.
What pleasure can be found here,

even if the love is palpable?
My mother stopped crying years ago.

What’s the use, she says, of all this leaking.
Enough to fill a drainage ditch, a reservoir?

No, just enough to wet a pillow.
What a waste of time, me pining after

a man who no longer feels for me.
Today, I would give it up. Trade mine

for theirs. They tell me that they are not hungry.
Happy is their toil. My uncles and their browned skins, not a pinch of fat anywhere.
They work the fields and swallow

beer after beer, getting sentimental.
Whose birds have come to roost, whose pigs in the muck?

Their dog has just birthed four new pups.
Despite ourselves, time moves on.

I walked lover’s lane with my cousin.

The heart-lights reflected on the river’s black.
The locks clustered and dangling.

I should have left our names on that bridge.
My name, the names of my family, written there.

Pop-Up Poetry Trivia !!!

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Famous-Poems-quiz

Famous Poems: 20 Multiple-Choice Questions

1 / 20

"roll the dice" is the opening line of a poem by Charles Bukowski.

What is the next line of this poem?

2 / 20

"i carry your heart with me" is a famous poem by E.E. Cummings. What is the next line of this poem after "i carry your heart with me(i carry it in"?

3 / 20

"The Odyssey" is a famous epic poem by Homer. What is the next line of this poem after "Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero"?

4 / 20

"I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother."

- What is the next line of this poem by Langston Hughes?

5 / 20

"Water, water, everywhere, 

And all the boards did shrink; 

Water, water, everywhere, 

Nor any drop to drink."

 

 - What is the title of this poem?

6 / 20

"Water, water, every where, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink."

- What is the title of this poem?

7 / 20

"Tyger Tyger, burning bright,

In the forests of the night;

 What immortal hand or eye, 

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?"

 

 - Who is the author of this poem?

8 / 20

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep, 

But I have promises to keep, 

And miles to go before I sleep, 

And miles to go before I sleep." 

 

- Who is the author of this poem?

9 / 20

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate:"

- What is the next line of this sonnet?

10 / 20

"For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, 

They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude." 

 

- Who is the author of this poem?

11 / 20

"I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;" - What is the next line of this poem by T.S. Eliot?

12 / 20

This coyness, lady, were no crime. 

We would sit down, 

and think which way To walk, 

and pass our long love's day."

 

- What is the title of this poem?

13 / 20

"I am the master of my fate, 

I am the captain of my soul." 

 

- What is the title of this poem?

14 / 20

"O Captain! My Captain! 

our fearful trip is done, 

The ship has weathered every rack, 

the prize we sought is won."

 

 - Who is the author of this poem?

15 / 20

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep, 

But I have promises to keep, 

And miles to go before I sleep, 

And miles to go before I sleep."

 

 - What is the title of this poem?

16 / 20

"The Waste Land" is a famous poem by T.S. Eliot. What is the next line of this poem after "April is the cruellest month"?

17 / 20

"Daddy" is a famous poem by Sylvia Plath. What is the next line of this poem after "You do not do, you do not do / Any more, black shoe"?

18 / 20

"I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair" is the opening line of a poem by Pablo Neruda. What is the next line of this poem?

19 / 20

"The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on."

- Who is the author of this poem?

20 / 20

"We real cool. We left school. We lurk late."

- What is the next line of this poem by Gwendolyn Brooks?

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Forms-Of-Poetry-Quiz

Forms Of Poetry: 20 Multiple-Choice Questions

1 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms is characterized by a series of eight-line stanzas, with a rhyme scheme of A-B-A-B-B-C-B-C?

2 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form in which two rhyming lines of iambic pentameter are followed by a rhyming line of iambic tetrameter?

3 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms is characterized by three-line stanzas, with a syllable count of 5-7-5 and a seasonal reference?

4 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form in which a speaker addresses someone or something that is absent or not able to respond?

5 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms is characterized by a poem that tells a story through a series of quatrains, with a rhyme scheme of ABAB?

6 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form that uses the repetition of a single word or phrase at the end of each line, and can be as short as three lines or as long as multiple stanzas?

7 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms consists of a series of six-line stanzas, with a specific rhyme scheme and the repetition of certain end words throughout the poem?

8 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms consists of a three-line stanza, with a syllable count of 5-7-5, but also includes a two-line stanza at the end, with a syllable count of 7-7?

9 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form in which a single poem is created by combining lines from multiple different poems, typically by different authors?

10 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms is characterized by three stanzas of three lines each and a final quatrain?

11 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form in which the last word of each line is repeated throughout the poem?

12 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms is characterized by alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, with a rhyme scheme of A-B-A-B?

13 / 20

What is the name for a poetic form consisting of 14 lines with a specific rhyme scheme and meter?

14 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms is characterized by a five-line stanza with a syllable count of 2-4-6-8-2, and typically contains a humorous or witty twist at the end?

15 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form in which the poem's shape on the page reflects its subject matter?

16 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms is characterized by six sestets and a final tercet, with a complex pattern of repeating end words?

17 / 20

Which of the following is NOT a form of Japanese poetry?

18 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms originated in Italy?

19 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form that originated in ancient Arabic poetry, consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, typically used to express love or melancholy?

20 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form consisting of a six-line stanza, with a rhyme scheme of A-A-B-B-C-C and a syllable count of 8-8-5-5-8-8?

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