A Forest of Names. Ian Boyden

      MAY 23

       Xiùpín

      秀頻

      Perennial Inflorescence

      Walk the wild meadows of late May.

      With the slightest wind,

      her name sweeps the sky.

      MAY 24

       Yǔchén

      嶼晨

      Island Daybreak

      Hands ring the isolate of earth

      where her name lies buried in the morning sun.

      She was four.

      MAY 27

       Jìtáo

      濟陶

      Crossing the River of Delight

      Wind crosses the ripening field

      like a hand across raw clay.

      The first gift

      a name the texture of infinity.

      JUNE 1

       Shuǎng

      爽

      Clear and Crisp

      The dictionary fell open,

      a single word

      offering autumn light.

      Then, as now,

      her name cradles the broken

      and unbroken lines of divination.

      JUNE 3

       Zhuō

      卓

      Outstanding Divination

      Because the reading is also a becoming,

      in his name there stands

      a person who reads these texts—

      A cloud’s color within the arc of a bird’s flight.

      The chattered cracks in bone at fire’s edge.

      JUNE 4

       Xiǎoyù

      曉钰

      Daybreak Treasure

      One jade dawn,

      instead of searching the horizon,

      she walked the limitless shore

      of her own waking.

      JUNE 9

       Fēifēi

      飛飛

      Profusion of Wings

      Her name an invisible bird—

      waiting to take flight

      from each mouth that called for her.

      JUNE 12

       Chéng

      誠

      Sincerity

      If I am to be completed by words,

      let them be the words of earth

      and not of abdication.

      JUNE 14

       Míngkūn

      明坤

      Elucidate Earth

      Plant a field of lightning.

      Who will harvest the fruit?

      JUNE 18

       Hàngǒng

      瀚拱