Two years had passed before I even realized. I was never interested in poetry before; only until these couple years have I begun to think of poetry from time to time. I have merely a few poetry books in my drawer as if each of them belongs to a very particular moment and state. Although I do not spend much time reading them, when I actually do, only poems have the power to rescue me from darkness and calm me down from over-excitement. Poetries are songs that hum with my soul. In two years time, I began to have more nights like this to spend time with myself.
For the past year, I kept thinking about an unexplainable thing. Perhaps it was because of the overwhelming frustration I had with maintaining a long relationship. Maybe I was thinking of untangling the thread that kept me tangled. Could it also be my dilemma pondering whether putting an end to the relationship would lead to a better or worse result? Of course, some days I felt so disturbed and needed a way out. These poems are like an accidental companion that shared with me the emotions that I was not familiar with. They have rescued me from drowning. In fact, anyone could become the pair of helping hands. I tried to reread the introduction of this poetry book on the online bookshop site, it says, “Fortunately, we have poetry to give a pair of wings to all secrets”.
TongChiao Chuang is an painter/poet. I Am Not Afraid of Unexpected Love is the second poetry collection he published. I am particularly fascinated by how down-to-earth his writing is. His poems are written in an unpretentious way that is easy to understand. Reading and breathing are the two moments when things and happenings can suddenly come to you unannounced. I often get upset when the pace of my brain is not in sync with that of my mind, it feels as if only one-third of my thoughts can be retained while the rest just slipped through my grip. Will it help if I seek to communicate my thoughts with others? Chances are slim but there should still be one regardless of the low probability. Is this the process of creating poetry? It is a dialogue somewhere between mumbling to oneself and conversing with a greater audience.
How about you? Where is your mind when reading poems?
詩集的薄荷色調,像從湖面往裡看,顏色深的淺的,像水裡有生命在呼吸。 The poems appear floating on a lake. Looking at the different shades of mint color, I could feel there are lives inside of the lake, breathing.