I Ask My Mother to Sing by Li-Young Lee She begins, and my grandmother joins her.
Mother and daughter sing like young girls.
If my father were alive, he would play
his accordion and sway like a boat.
I’ve never been in Peking, or the Summer Palace,
nor stood on the great Stone Boat to watch
the rain begin on Kuen Ming Lake, the picnickers
running away in the grass.
But I love to hear it sung;
how the waterlilies fill with rain until
they overturn, spilling water into water,
then rock back, and fill with more.
Both women have begun to cry.
But neither stops her song. Art by Navedita Singh
Recommended listening: I'm Still a Man (Lord Have Mercy) - Willie West Links of the Day: The Deep Magic of Mexico + all stories in The Big Roundtable The Maps We Wandered Into As Kids
A Native Tongue Called Peace (a beautiful project I wrote about that is trying to bring peace between the various ethnic tribes of Manipur by teaching children from various ethnic backgrounds to sing and play instruments.)
Inside a Limitless Cartoon Universe | The Creators Project Meets Mike Perry