SEARCHING FOR THE LIGHT

               -- for poet friend Xiang Ming*

in order to cast the shadows of his life behind

he searches day and night

for the light --

the sun

the moon

the stars

the flickering fireflies

even dim street lamps

yet we discover

his real focus

is on the brighter and hotter star

of poetry

behind all these sources

especially on those nights

when the sky and earth are covered

with thick clouds and heavy snow

and there is a power outage 

*literarily means "facing the light" or "searching for the light"