RE-READING TSERING WANGMO DHOMPA ~

 

The year of parting

This moment of silence, plucking lice from each other's head to drop

into wet grass. The latitudes of intimacy.

Shadows under patches of early lavender in this summer breeze.

Reiterations of a solitary thought found in a walk. Blowing breath with

a breath, bamboo growth stalking the wind. Meeting wind with its

rustle, meeting wind with fingers trembling with utter foolishness.

Do not ask to stay when dust slides off feet poised for flight.

Bewildered between water and sky, only a slippery prostration.

Spaces circling amiably, lobe cupping lobe in a ceremony. Shrugging off

the present in an attempt to live in the present. Separating ear from ear.

As cotton padded feet meet parting curtains.

When you leave, I will grab that hour of parting.

Kiss our feet. Straighten your toes.

________________________________________

Tsering Wangmo Dhompa

RECURRING GESTURES

Tangram 2000

such a beautifully balanced poem

TSERING WANGMO DHOMPA ~

from  a geography of belonging




Time, pinker than the dots

on her blue shirt. A name

wasn't decided because

the lama was travelling

in a foreign country. We

were careless with our

affections. Tiny clouds

were stitched on the baby's

cap. Would she need

happiness or money?

Clouds are for the sky,

says the elder. Breasts

are for milk. Would

we have walked across

the mountains if we

listened to our feet?





~





First came pictures of animals

not found in our zoo.

Then apparatus assembled

for our benefit because

we had no money in the bank.

Even in the old country

grass was boiled for dinner.

We learn from our elders

so when they said we were

poor, we knew our job

as children. The eldest

gave up school so the youngest

could be polished for reward.

How does this translate in

your language? How can

it be that the rich are thin and

the poor are fat where you live

wrote a little boy from far away.






______________________
Tsering Wangmo Dhompa
In the Absent Everyday
Apogee Press
2002




Tsering was raised in India and Nepal

TSERING WANGMO DHOMPA ~

Tsering Wangmo Dhompa’s parents fled Tibet in 1959. Raised by her mother in Tibetan communities in Dharamsala, India, and Kathmandu, Nepal, Tsering earned a BA and an MA from Lady Shri Ram College in New Delhi, an MA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and an MFA in creative writing from San Francisco State University. 

A friend of Longhouse, we published one of Tsering's earliest booklet of poems.

Bardo 
Tsering Wangmo Dhompa




A hundred and one butter lamps are offered to my uncle who
is no more.

Distraction proves fatal in death. A curtain of butter imprints
in air.

After the burning of bones, ashes are sent on pilgrimage. You are
dead, go into life, we pray. My uncle was a man given to giggles
in solemn moments.

Memory springs like crocuses in bloom. Self conscious and
precise.

Without blurring the cornea, details are resuscitated. Dried yak
meat between teeth. Semblance of what is.

Do not be distracted, Uncle who is no more.

He does not see his reflection in the river. The arching of speech
over  s as he is becoming.

Curvature of spine as it cracked on a misty morning. A shadow
evades the wall.

You are no more, Uncle who is no more.

Every seven days he must relive his moment of expiration.
The living pray frequently amid burning juniper.

Communication efforts require the right initiative.

Somewhere along the line matters of motion and rest are resolved.

Crows pick the last offerings. You are someone else, uncle no
more.


______________________

Tsering Wangmo Dhompa
from Rules of the House  2003
Apogee Press

http://14hills.net/node/108



Books ~

    A Home in Tibet, Penquin India, Delhi 2013
    My Rice Tastes Like the Lake, Apogee Press, Berkeley 2011
    In the Absent Everyday, Apogee Press, Berkeley 2005
    Rules of the House, Apogee Press, Berkeley 2002
    Recurring Gestures, Tangram Press,
    In Writing the Names, A.bacus, 2000

EARTH ~

TSERING WANGMO DHOMPA



Tsering from Longhouse:




please click on image




~ Books of poems by Tsering Wangmo Dhompa ~


My Rice Tastes Like the Lake, Apogee Press, Berkeley 2011
In the Absent Everyday, Apogee Press, Berkeley 2005
Rules of the House, Apogee Press, Berkeley 2002
Recurring Gestures, Tangram Press
In Writing the Names, A.bacus, 2000