Tag Archives: Shelly Bryant

a response to Yin Ge’s acrylic on canvas Q-016 the clamshell sits on his hearth the very one in which he harbored his first flame its lips part hinting at an invitation or, perhaps telling of a great escape Shelly … Continue reading →

hope’s stain in the hollow of her vessel dregs of the slumgullion gift from the gods Shelly Bryant divides her year between Shanghai and Singapore, working as a teacher, writer, researcher, and translator. She is the author of three volumes … Continue reading →

a response to Juel’s oil on canvas Energy Transfer of Love, 2010 that naked form, kneeling before the fearsome creature’s face she might be taken as a supplicant pleading for mercy were it not for her outspread wings covering half … Continue reading →

mortuary vessels       scattered across the Plain of Jars the distillation of a life,       its ritual decomposition each soul upgraded,       each clay pot for another exchanged Shelly Bryant divides her year between Shanghai and Singapore, working as a teacher, writer, researcher, … Continue reading →

I watch the words       coming out       from your mouth interested       less in content       than in you             your handling of it             and its of you I listen to expressions       animating       your features hearing what       you don’t voice       echoes from             sublingual spaces … Continue reading →

my wife wants me to tell you       the notion       that she bosses me       and I do what she says       is a myth that’s not how our relationship works       she says not at all we are equals             partners             interdependent             peers             comrades … Continue reading →

a response to Wang Liang’s pair of oils on canvas Network Era – Mask No. 1 and Network Era – Mask No. 2 pages 55 and 56 two faces, one black lying across from its white doppleganger — mask and … Continue reading →

Unwilling to lose the morbid thread I’d read in those lines, I just had to jot down a note. It had something to do with wondering how—not so much when, but how—I would eventually die. I leaned from the bed, … Continue reading →

We were in the garden that day when the spider caught our attention, dangling from its thread against the backdrop of a whitewashed wall topped with grey roof tiles. I spent too much time trying to get a good photo … Continue reading →

at a poetry reading a chuckle stifled so as not to offend stuffy countenances of serious subversives rebuke the light of heart laughter, after all never brought down       a house Shelly Bryant divides her year between Shanghai and Singapore, working … Continue reading →

random access memory random access memory random access memory random access memory random access memory random access memory random access memory random access memory random access memory random access memory random access memory random access memory random access memory random access … Continue reading →

coerce push thrust propel drive motor engine locomotive prohibit outlaw criminal crook bend curve contour line Train instruct tell tattle gossip prattle babble drone passenger work-out exercise use exploit manipulate steer pilot aviator Shelly Bryant divides her year between Shanghai … Continue reading →

from Etna flows a crimson stream stones of paler carmine afloat on its face in Ajo, silence two hours passed since the furious storm the fountain in the square quieted this while leaps into life anew its waters rage in … Continue reading →

a response to Juel’s oil on canvas Panic Attack in her yin and yang existence       is she bursting             from a field of flowers             into a scorpion storm       or does she escape             from a scorpion swarm             into floral bliss       does she … Continue reading →

at the base of an unbranched stem the dragon and phoenix linger their vigil of three thousand years offers an immortal harvest coppery-skinned peaches unearthed reborn to life everlasting Shelly Bryant divides her year between Shanghai and Singapore, working as … Continue reading →

conceive begin set out planted farmed cultivated sophisticated urbane put aside keep store cache hoard amass build up urban City municipal civil courteous polite deferential respectful dutiful scrupulous ghetto slum settlement arrangement design plot conspiracy scheme Shelly Bryant splits her … Continue reading →

afterglow of the big bang — a textured cosmos Shelly Bryant splits her time between Singapore and Shanghai, working as a translator, freelance writer, researcher, and student of Chinese language and culture. She is the author of two volumes of … Continue reading →

she tried to erase him with sex drugs and drink and when she had grown with trips to a shrink at the end of her quest imagine the stink when at last she learned he was written in ink Shelly … Continue reading →

On Luoyang’s outskirts, outside the tomb of Bai, I can’t help but wonder how he ever wrote a word here, much less enough poetry to fill the walls of a winding corridor. Structures from his time and long before stand … Continue reading →

constancy faithfulness high fidelity hi-fi stereo radio transmitter/receiver signaler satellite fickle wavering unbalanced off-kilter uneven untidy disorder chaotic madness Moon inconstant changeable malleable flexible supple soft quiet tranquil serene orbit revolution coup mutiny rebellion insubordination defiance recalcitrance obstreperousness Shelly Bryant … Continue reading →

I was your rock       you always said stability in troubled times unmoving in a turbulent world an old cliche       in an evolving idiom she, I suppose       is your tectonic shift changing your map’s face       so gradually you don’t even notice … Continue reading →

winter’s snow bisecting a lava pool — yin and yang                   advancing                   morainal termini —                   magma domes embraced first freeze icy face’s shine — laced with black ash Shelly Bryant splits her time between Singapore and Shanghai, working as a teacher, … Continue reading →