| Muses Review - Poetry - Winter 2006 |
| Back to: Poetry. |
| Joanne Olivieri 's poetry: |
| Joanne Olivieri Poet from California |
| The poems are copyrighted to Joanne Olivieri . Poems are published in Muses Review with permission from the author. |
| Rate the poem of Joanne Olivieri: 5 = excellent 4 = very good 3 = satisfactory 2 = lacking depth 1 = never mind |
| New Year's Day In Kowloon By Joanne Olivieri Source: Red Lanterns (2005) p. 3 With an air of baked yams and charcoal stir fried chestnuts the bustling side streets come alive this new day the rooster crows. Temple Street bargains it's way through tourists. Bamboo, china dolls, fu dog hawked with an eastern flare good fortune and piety. The lion dances with a deafening roar chasing evil spirits from Kowloon Park. Families gather along Nathan Road, children adorned in their finest red and gold kimono spun silk and satin laced. They gather the feast dim sum, chow fan, peking duck and wash away the old year with Chinese tea, sake, tsingtao Yin Yang. ------------------------------------ Editor's rating: 5 laurels out of 5 laurels Reader's Rating: (not yet rated) ------------------------------- |
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| Joanne's inspiration in writing the poem: I spent New Year's Day roaming the neighborhoods of Kowloon and was struck by all the little children wearing their red and gold kimonos - their Sunday best while enjoying a feast of Asian delicacies with their families and friends. |
| Poem Review: Title of Poem: New Year's Day In Kowloon Author: Joanne Olivieri Source: Red Lanterns (2005) Rating: 5 laurels out of 5 laurels. The Year 2006 is the Year of the Dog in the Chinese zodiac calendar. New Year is a joyous occassion not only for Westerners but also for people in the East that observes a different calendar of their New Year. I decided to feature this poem "New Year's Day In Kowloon" in Winter 2006 edition of Muses Review since the Chinese New Year will fall in Feb 2006 which is Winter time in the Gregorian calendar. Joanne begins her description of Hong Kong's New Year with the smell of food and the sounds of a rooster. "With an air of baked yams/ and charcoal stir fried chestnuts/ the bustling side streets/ come alive this new day/ the rooster crows." She continues her description of New Year in Kowloon with her eyes: "Temple Street/ bargains it's way through tourists./ Bamboo, china dolls, fu dog/ hawked with an eastern flare/ good fortune and piety." The most exciting event in the Chinese New Year I suppose is the lion dance and the dragon dance: "The lion dances/ with a deafening roar/ chasing evil spirits/ from Kowloon Park." Joanne forgot to include the dragon dances in her poem. Joanne told me, "I spent New Year's Day roaming the neighborhoods of Kowloon and was struck by all the little children wearing their red and gold kimonos - their Sunday best while enjoying a feast of Asian delicacies with their families and friends." This is revealed in her poem: "Families gather along Nathan Road, children adorned in their finest/ red and gold kimono/ spun silk and satin laced." Joanne describes the food prepared by the Chinese: "They gather the feast/ dim sum, chow fan, peking duck/ and wash away the old year with/ Chinese tea, sake, tsingtao/ Yin Yang." The first time I read the poem "New Years Day in Kowloon", the poem reminded me of my experiences of Chinese New Year in the Philippines. Joanne gave a background inspiration about this poem. She said that she took a vacation in Hong Kong and she wrote poems about her visit to Hong Kong. The poem is a very good description of New Year in a foreign culture since Joanne is from California with Greek heritage. The poem is an excellent visual, nasal and audiovisual description of Chinese New Year using plain words but concrete events. Hence, this poem is nominated Best Poem of Year 2005 for 2nd Muses Prize - Poetry. |
