Bill Radke and KUOW poetry correspondent Elizabeth Austen discuss an excerpt of "Pastoral Power," a sprawling, image-driven poem by local poet Jane Wong. The poem is rooted in a trip Wong took as a teenager to the rural village in southern China where her mother grew up.
Sometimes, I think: can Walden exist in China? Returning to nature is a luxury we keep, like this floral soap I can't bear to clean my filthy face with.
"Pastoral Power" is part of Wong's first full-length collection, "Over Pour," published by Action Books.
Listen to the whole poem:
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