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[Throughout 2018, we have committed to publishing a selection of poems from each month of Ian Boyden’s manuscript “A Forest of Names.” Over the course of a year, Boyden translated the 5,196 names of schoolchildren crushed in the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake. He then began a collection of poems, each written on the day of each child’s birth. An in-depth discussion of these poems can be read in “Fault Line: An Introduction to A Forest of Names.” —Eds.]
Detail from Ai Weiwei: Fault Line. Foreground: a marble replica of twisted iron rebar pulled from one of the schools that collapsed in the Sichuan Earthquake (Rebar and Case, 2014). Background: the names of the 5,196 school children killed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Photograph by Ian Boyden.
SEPTEMBER 1
森林 Infinity of Trees
Once planted, the name proliferated. Today, desert sand fills around the ancient trunks.
Any footprints quickly disappear.
SEPTEMBER 3
鸿臣 Minister of the Swan
Eye of the storm that brings the flood and leaves behind a single white feather.
SEPTEMBER 5
珊吉 Coral Luck
Great libraries ring the outer banks, coral-red books bound by a jade-green sea.
Our luck to float through such majesty, even as their words fade in the bleaching currents.
SEPTEMBER 7
穎 Tassel
Have you listened to the love song of the wind? It trembles every blade, the mind of the meadow at play.
SEPTEMBER 9
銘皓 Inscription of Luminosity
The autumn spider weaves its inscriptions with dew, with shifting light.
It may not yet have caught an insect, but it has caught my heart.
SEPTEMBER 13
崇林 Forest of Veneration
She knelt before the mountain, to all sides, the forest of her ancestors— a long lineage that ended with her name.
SEPTEMBER 14
秀梅 Flourishing Plum
We scarcely noticed the tree writing its poem until the last lines filled with golden light.
Then we eyed the dark birds gathering to the fruit.
SEPTEMBER 15
思語 Language of Thought
She became a reflection of words, an expression of language, even after the harrowing of the heart’s field.
SEPTEMBER 17
雪 Snowfall
The snow fell, a powder of light. Corrupt hands brushed it away, yet remained caked with black dust.
SEPTEMBER 22
林淳 Forest of Simple Honesty
I raise my glass to those simple roots. May they wedge apart the foundations of complicity.
SEPTEMBER 25
林洲 Forested Island
He rose from within the swirling water of time. His heart a forest—generous and intimate as an autumn song.
SEPTEMBER 27
厚磊 Substantial Mass of Stone
Generous Earth. Kind Earth. Abundant, honest, and sincere. A child of the days.
Read more from Ian Boyden’s “A Forest of Names” in the following links:
“Introduction to ‘A Forest of Names'”
A Forest of Names — January selections
A Forest of Names — February selections
A Forest of Names — March selections
A Forest of Names — April selections
A Forest of Names — May selections
A Forest of Names — June selections
A Forest of Names — July selections
A Forest of Names — August selections
A Forest of Names — October selections
A Forest of Names — November selections
A Forest of Names — December selections
“Fragile as an Urn: An Interview with Ian Boyden”
« A Forest of Names (August) by Ian Boyden | “I Keep My Eye on the Rose”: A Review of Second Bloom by Anya Krugovoy Silver. »