The Abiding

Hard to say where my mind was that time

 or even what day, month or season it was

 when sitting in a middle school classroom

 my knees just fitting under the wood desk

 the teacher, his hair greyer than his years,

 stood and began to recite, with emotion,

 Farewell to a Friend, by Li Bai.

As if unleashed, something within me stirred.

Two friends parting as the sun sets in the sky,

one starting out to travel to places far away.

Then, as if guided by the poem just recited,

he turned and drew the images it conjured:

- the hills of the northern border

- clouds roaming above the landscape.

 Like a great wind, love for ancient poetry shook me,

 a love that, these many years later, does not subside.