It is funny now

that we look back

at how foolish we've been,

to be better than we are capable of becoming.

Like the people we believed

but afterwards reviled for letting ourselves believe them.

The worst is when we could never choose to love.

For example, a mother or a father who isn't your mother or father at all.

We who have been thanking them all our lives

now thank them for being the people they really are―

human like we are,

only less to themselves as we all are to the others who live in us,

those beautiful strangers

we never get to be

now laughing along with us.

Sometimes we thank You
for no reason at all.
A life is a reason to be thankful—
how they sometimes take for granted
the things You've given us.
We are all that.
We are Your making.

Some learn this too late.
They continue to want
the people they love
to live and die for them,
forgetting they themselves
may never be able to live again
though they breathe.

Because in this other dying,
they know to breathe,
having taken so much that is Yours
that is never theirs.

Poetry New Zealand by Siobhan Harvey:

"Reading Becoming Someone Who Isn't, I'm reminded of numerous second collections by New Zealand emigre-poets....books which, like Becoming Someone Who Isn't, forlornly but accurately voice the travails of immigration and resettlement. And yet there's something different about Chan's second collection....Becoming Someone Who Isn't paints a different picture:the picture it paints is of expatriate existence as an allusive, rather than definitive undertaking....Given New Zealand readership's long engagement with the works of migrant-writers such as Chan, I'm convinced that Becoming Someone Who Isn't will find a welcome and enthusiastic following amongst the poetry-loving audience."


Thanks, Siobhan. 

"The melancholy that runs through this collection is like a fine mist drifting without settling…Chan's poems are clearly acts of survival that transcend these sad places to contemplate the nature of existence….There is a strong sense of narrative lyricism; also a fine balance of levity and seriousness; resignation and hope…."

-Patricia Prime, Takahe


Thanks, Patricia.

in Magazine, Issue Five can be found at my publisher, Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop's
website. Thanks, Raewyn!

I have three prose poems in APWN's Auto/Biography Edition edited by Ivy Alvarez. Thanks so much Ivy! Read all the poems and her wonderful introduction to the edition in the link below:

apwn

link to my poems

This episode of Bob Marcacci's excellent show

features Sheila E. Murphy

and...

- Luc Simonic
- Jill Chan
- CA Conrad
- Joe Green
- Paula Grenside
- Christine Hamm
- Carly Sachs
- Matina Stamatakis
- Mathew Timmons
- Lenore Weiss

Listen here

Thanks so much, Bob and Josh!

Check out the Q & A about publishing/editing poetry.

link

Thanks Didi. I appreciate it.

I have some poems in the latest issue of Blackmail Press. Features some familiar names in NZ poetry like Michael Steven, Olivia Macassey, Jennifer Compton, Iain Britton, Mary Cresswell, and others. And international poets like Lynn Strongin, Sam Silva, Wendy Howe, David Sanford Brown and others.

Complete list below:

New Zealand Poets

Cedric Mamoe, Helen Tionisi, Andrew Fiu, Mariana Isara, Michael Steven, Olivia Macassey, Christian Jensen, Jill Chan, Jason Morales, Jennifer Compton, Iain Britton, Miriam Barr, Matt Harris ,Annora Gollop, Bernard Kyle, Anna Kaye Forsyth, Chris Parsons, Laura Solomon, David Ingram, Natasha Leafburg, Keith Nunes, Shelly Joyce, Jason Ropitini, Gemma Rowsell, Thane Zander, Mary Cresswell, H.Mark Webster, Grant Goodman, Ashley Goodmon, Nicholas Messenger


International Guests

Ja'net Danielo, Mario Melendez, Jane Williams, Sam Silva, Theresa Edwards, Hector Lopez, Kristin Ong Muslim, Jason Sanford Brown, Lynn Strongin, Mark Murphy, Wendy Howe, Davide Trame, Shiesh Money, Steve Erly, Tom Hamilton, G Patrick Lodge, Gary Beck, David Stavanger


Edited by Doug Poole


Thanks, Doug!

"This is an attractive book by Jill Chan. Trained in chemistry, she makes good with 'the word' and this little book is an excellent example of that. A new voice delving into the realms of love, hope, despair and beauty is always welcome and Chan's contribution to this is very fresh and welcome...Many of the poems are introspective, but certainly not turgid. Very serious work, this, but otherwise filled with wonder, like 'Sunday' and 'Lunch' - some good work, well worth getting."

-Trevor Reeves, Southern Ocean Review

To read the whole review, go here