{"id":916,"date":"2018-04-11T21:03:58","date_gmt":"2018-04-11T21:03:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/basalt\/?p=916"},"modified":"2019-05-12T11:41:35","modified_gmt":"2019-05-12T11:41:35","slug":"a-forest-of-names-april-by-ian-boyden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/basalt\/2018\/04\/11\/a-forest-of-names-april-by-ian-boyden\/","title":{"rendered":"A Forest of Names (April) by Ian Boyden"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

[Throughout 2018, we have committed to publishing a selection of poems from each month of Ian Boyden\u2019s manuscript \u201cA Forest of Names.\u201d 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\u2019s birth. An in-depth discussion of these poems can be read in \u201cFault Line: An Introduction to A Forest of Names<\/a>.\u201d \u2014Eds.]<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Detail<\/a>

Detail from Ai Weiwei: Fault Line<\/em>. Foreground: marble replicas of twisted iron rebar pulled from one of the schools that collapsed in the Sichuan Earthquake (Rebar and Case<\/em>, 2014). Background: the names of the 5,196 school children killed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Photograph by Ian Boyden.<\/p><\/div>
\n <\/p>\n

APRIL 1<\/p>\n

\u9732
\nDew<\/p>\n

It’s spring, and the names bloom with water.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

APRIL 2<\/p>\n

\u6668
\nDaybreak<\/p>\n

The sun with its plow; the mind with its act.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

APRIL 4<\/p>\n

\u7dd2\u6ce2
\nThread Wave<\/p>\n

What did he wear?<\/p>\n

Water
\nwoven by wind
\nand dyed by light.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

APRIL 7<\/p>\n

\u5830\u5e73
\nPeaceful Weir<\/p>\n

Our names stretch out like great nets.
\nBut peace?
\nWe must give up our names to find that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

APRIL 8<\/p>\n

\u6e05\u83c1
\nPure Essence<\/p>\n

When her name left your lips,
\na leek flower opened over dark water.
\nEven her name had a moon.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

APRIL 11<\/p>\n

\u842c\u5bb9
\nMyriad Container<\/p>\n

The urn shattered,
\nten thousand questions scattered
\nin the stone dust.
\nBut each in its own way asked,<\/p>\n

are we still one?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

APRIL 16<\/p>\n

\u5efa\u5ddd
\nBuilder of Rivers<\/p>\n

Let this page describe what I saw
\nin the Blue River,
\nthe River of the Mountain People.<\/p>\n

A black pattern emerged out of emptiness,
\na name out of the silence
\nfrom which we were born.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

APRIL 17<\/p>\n

\u6df2
\nFlowing Water<\/p>\n

The sun-reflecting river\u2014
\na tiger stripe through black earth.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

APRIL 21<\/p>\n

\u96ea\u82d3
\nSnow Fungus<\/p>\n

The soil-woven
\nsing within spring mountains:<\/p>\n

dark flowers at the edge of ice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

APRIL 22<\/p>\n

\u9732
\nLaid Bare<\/p>\n

Exposed, revealed, loved and betrayed.
\nLike nectar laid bare on a windless morning.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

APRIL 23<\/p>\n

\u4e4b
\nZigzag<\/p>\n

An accumulation of steps!
\nOur feet wet with dew.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

APRIL 28<\/p>\n

\u767b\u9e97
\nThe Ascent of Beauty<\/p>\n

She climbs, each step like a quiet drum.
\nAntlers bleach among spring wildflowers.<\/p>\n

 
\n 
\n <\/p>\n

Read more from Ian Boyden’s “A Forest of Names” in the following links:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Introduction to ‘A Forest of Names'”<\/a><\/p>\n

A Forest of Names \u2014 January selections<\/a><\/p>\n

A Forest of Names \u2014 February selections<\/a><\/p>\n

A Forest of Names \u2014 March selections<\/a><\/p>\n

A Forest of Names \u2014 May selections<\/a><\/p>\n

A Forest of Names \u2014 June selections<\/a><\/p>\n

A Forest of Names \u2014 July selections<\/a><\/p>\n

A Forest of Names \u2014 August selections<\/a><\/p>\n

A Forest of Names \u2014 September selections<\/a><\/p>\n

A Forest of Names \u2014 October selections<\/a><\/p>\n

A Forest of Names \u2014 November selections<\/a><\/p>\n

A Forest of Names \u2014 December selections<\/a><\/p>\n

“Fragile as an Urn: An Interview with Ian Boyden”<\/a>
\n 
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Throughout 2018, we have committed to publishing a selection of poems from each month of Ian Boyden\u2019s manuscript \u201cA Forest of Names.\u201d 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":1182,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[187,6,8],"tags":[173,188,172,174],"class_list":["post-916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-forest-of-names","category-featured-articles","category-poem-of-the-month","tag-a-forest-of-names","tag-ai-weiwei","tag-ian-boyden","tag-sichuan-earthquake"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/basalt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/basalt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/basalt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/basalt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/basalt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=916"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/basalt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1293,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/basalt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916\/revisions\/1293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/basalt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/basalt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/basalt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/basalt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}