between souls 2013

7/29/2019 Between Souls 2013

1/29

BBBeeetttwwweeeeeennn SSSooouuulllsss


2/29

On a Stairway in Luang Prabang 3

Leuk Lao 4

Surprises in America 5

Khop Jai for Nothing, Falangs 6

Jaew 8

E Pluribus Unum 9

The Spirit Catches You, and You Get Body Slammed 10

Democracia 11

A Wat Is To Temple As To Escape Is To Survive 12

Todays Special at the Shuang Cheng 13

New Myths of the Northern Land 14

Insomniacafe 15

An Archaeology of Snow Forts 16

Libertree 17

Zh Bji 19

One Day 21

* * *

About the Author 22

Selected Awards and Recognition, 1991-2011 23

Partial Publications List: 1999-2011 24

Selected Performances, 2005-2011 29


3/29

On a Stairway in Luang Prabang

Step as you will through life,

A thousand ways, a thousand places.

Carry a home in your heart

Or spend years seeking the door

Where your soul will always smile.

Do you ease the way for others,

Or just yourself?

Do you climb great mountains

Just to leave them unchanged?

One day, the heights of holy Phu Si

Will lay as soft valleys.

We, only memories.

But our childrens children?

Will they, too, have reason to smile,

Like those dreaming strangers

Who finished their stairs for us?


4/29

Leuk Lao

We meet on the road

But once and I cannot tell you

In the time we have:

"We are one."

"What's left, what survived, what remains

Of old dreams, old wars, old loves."

We share atomic lives:

Small, brief, unpredictable orbits,

Curious flurries of motion and smiles.

Who you become after I go,

I can only guess

Except by the photos

Of occasional touring strangers

In which I watch you grow,

While you remember an eye,

A camera, a wave goodbye.


5/29

Surprises in America

It took me by surprise that Hitler was a vegetarian.

Rudolf Hess, too.I remember reading about them as a boy.

I remember the outrage when someone asked us to forgive them

Because the two would pet their dogs before night.

It took me by surprise that "Soldier of Fortune" offered a reward

For Idi Amin.

Paid in gold.

Dead or alive.

It was a lot of money.

What does it say when mercenaries set bounties on tyrants' heads?

It took me by surprise that we weren't always the good guys.

What couldn't we buy in the land of the free?

Why couldn't we go where we weren't welcome?

It struck me by surprise that many people didn't believe

I was an American

When I had lived here all of my life.

(Except for that two-day trip to Toronto.)

If they had told me instead that my mother had died,

I don't think I would have been as surprised.


6/29

Khop Jai for Nothing, Falangs

The bomb popped in his face

While he was digging a fire pit

For his family squatting

On the old mercenary camp

In Xieng Khouang province

So notorious for its UXO.

They live there for the American plumbing,

Our host said flatly,Watching volleyball games by the airstrip.

This was wholly routine.

The ruined grounds were frozen.

Explosives, dormant blooms below

Can be mistaken for ice and rock easily.

And he screamed

The whole while as we loaded

Him into the back of our rickety plane

To Vientiane that

Lao Aviation picked up from

The Russians when everyone

Thought the Cold War

Was going somewhere.


7/29

The California girl on holiday

Was aghast and found it

Quite unscenic.

What a pall on her search for highs.

In Wat Inpaeng,

A monk named Souk

Confided discretely:

We really hate hippies.


8/29

Jaew

Goes in hot. Comes out hot.

But this may be more than the casual student

Will want to know.

Moms grinding chilies for me in Modesto.

Red, green, a dash of fresh cilantro,

Fermented shrimp sauce and a pinch of salt

Between her mortar and pestle.

Dabbing a sticky ball of khao nhio

Into the tiny ceramic saucer, I know

Shes a sorceress

In her kitchen

Trying to find a way to say

She loves me, hoping my prodigal tongue

Is still Lao enough

To understand what her broken English cannot convey.

My eyes are cisterns of tears after 30 years.

I should say mak phet and grab some cold milk

But with a smile through the pain I stammer

Saep lai, Mae, delicious, Mom.

Saep lai, hak Mae lai lai.

Dont talk, just eat, she says between her tears.


9/29

E Pluribus Unum

Youa tells me a story over the hot hibachi:

How she went to Laos

To see her lucky sisters

For the first time in two decades,

Since the country has loosened up enough

To let tourists like us in.

Isnt it beautiful? she asks me,

Then says she gave her sister Mayli $50

To help her family.

When Youa returned to the Twin Cities,

She learned her sister had been murdered

For the money

By Maylis ex-husband, whod heard

Of their family reunion

And thought the cash rightfully belonged to him.

Did you give your relatives anything?

She asks.

Yes, I reply. $500. But they say they need more

To get to America.


10/29

The Spirit Catches You, and You Get Body Slammed

I came to Missoula to ask him

About the inner workings of ua neeb.

To understand the symbolic significance of split horns

And spirit horses who trace their noble smoky path

To turns of an auspicious moon above ancient Qin.

My tape recorder at the ready,

My fountain pen freshly filled with indigo ink,

My ears, my eyes, my heart:

All were humbly waiting for

The wise shaman's wordsTo impart to the next generation

Of youths who sought this fading voice.

He spoke, and my interpreter said:

"Who's your favorite wrestler?"

I wasn't certain I'd heard properly.

"Grandpa wants to know who your favorite wrestler is."

My interpreter turned back to the shaman, speaking Hmong.

Rising with a stately elder's grace, the shaman confidently said:

"Randy Macho Man Savage!" and struck a macho pose.

Smiling, he then offered me a cup of hot coffee.

I was too stunned to say anything more

For the rest of the afternoon.

Years later, I still have dreams of shining Shee Yee

Smashing writhing demons into blue turnbuckles,

Watching next to a hundred smiling shamans in the audience.


11/29

Democracia

Father was a tiger

Ground beneath the wheels

His fat was burned to light a torch

But theres no liberty here

Only the ashes of the village

That couldnt evolve

Where ghost grandchildren play with ghost grandparents

And the parents are nowhere to be seen at all.

Where have they gone? Where have they gone?

A delay of a day for an idea, a delay of a lifetime

for the dead upon the ground.

Look, what remains-

This hut hasnt the ambition of Ozymandias

These craters were once a rice field

This ox was no mans enemy

And what we have left to say could explode any minute.


12/29

A Wat Is To Temple

As To Escape Is To Survive

Among the many stone Buddhas

A young monk's almond eyes stood out

A bare-headed boy, slender and serene

Clad in saffron, caught seconds before the next prayer

Walking towards nirvana with a precocious smile

I wondered if someday

in a distant century

we would see

a statue of himpaving the way

for my children.


13/29

Todays Special at the Shuang Cheng

Coated in caramelized salt:

the suckers of a squid tendril

diced into impotencebetween my chopsticks

and baked

they once clutched

at an ocean

writhing with life

holding on to each precious bite.

What will worms use

to hold my bony hands

if i don't let them

throw me into the

sea

a handful of dust

with a hint of squid flavoring.


14/29

New Myths of the Northern Land

Dream, I said,

Arent you tired of making new legends

That no one but I ever hears?

Bones, she said,

Arent you ever tired of asking questions

That only I can answer?

I went back to bed,

Waiting for the new king to arrive,

His talking mirror filled

With dire pronouncements of flame.


15/29

Insomniacafe

If God with his hundred sacred names

must caper about

like a young child full of infinity

hiding among a blade of field grass,

grey cathedral cornerstones

or the wizened hands of a stranger in Calcutta

overcome with kindness

in a cosmic game

of peek-a-boo,

how can he hold a grudge

against those honest enough to say"I don't know if I've really seen him lately?"

Lording over a cup of cappuccino

like an Italian monk on watch at midnight,

I wonder briefly if the faithful will have to sit

in a corner of paradise for a while

for perjury.

With another sip,

eyes wide as Daruma

or some crazed cartoon cat,

I wonder if I'll ever get to sleep this way...


16/29

An Archaeology of Snow Forts

Theres not much left to be said

That some well-washed stone hasnt heard before.

History is composed of broken walls and bad neighbors,Just ask these chips from Berlin, the Parthenon and Cathay

Or these cool magma hands of Pompeii, dark and grey.

If you listen carefully in the right place

On University Avenue, you will learn

There is a minor wall near the Yalu River

Dancing on the hills of Qin for the moon,

Who knows exactly what I mean

In every tongue worth mention.

Shes moonlighting as a curved garden serpent

Coiling around old Laocoon,

The Suspicious One with his astute eye,

Crooning with a sly wink,

Come, touch true history.

And how the moon must laugh when she spies

The tiniest hill in Minnetonka,

Where the small hands of the earth have erected

A magnificent white wall,

A snowy miniature Maginot

Raised some scant hours before,

Already melting into a hungry, roiling river

Who is not yet finished eating Louisiana for brunch.


17/29

Libertree

The tree of liberty devours the loyal

Grinding them between burning flag teeth and a ton of open doors.

Blue lakes formed in the footprints of Babe

While the trail of tears formed a bloody river.

Washington had a thing for breaking cherry trees and raising hemp

That was good for strong ropes to bind us all together

In a frenetic world of neckties and necessities.

No one knows the names of Afghan heroes or Hmong veterans

Whose fathers raised opium crops now littered with landmines.

Few can tell you where Russia is, even after fifty years

Of cold wars in tropical nations they never vacationed in, personally.

They would be unable to tell you how many of our allies are

In an impossible debt, negotiating a cost-effective betrayal.

But they can tell you about "Friends" and Miss October.

Miscellaneous documents outliningIlliterate farmers with $200 anti-tank weapons

Have surfaced to air our missile mania,

A culture where no one sees the irony

Of naming a million-dollar cruise missile

After a tomahawk, while defanged reservations cope

With under-funded schools.

People laugh as immigrants report stories of American giants

Who press you beneath their green thumbs stained with dollars

When it's time to eat.


18/29

Cannibalized ideas and epics lay exhausted, scattered apple-seeds

In urban canyons formed by alien policies of war and leverage.

And a great love of sequels.

Half of the nation has never seen an orchard,

Only the recycled city papers

They are being ignored in as usual.

Somehow, the Cubans managed to preserve

The purity of baseball and cigars

While we still can't imagine the rules to Canadian curling,

Despite our open borders.

And strangely, when a laughing yellow cab driver

Who was a former engineer from Iraq tells me about

US chemical weapons and acid rain,

I'm just not as surprised as I wish I could be.

His last words rang like a cracked bell outside

Of a smoking capitol of conspiracies:

"When there's a new war, watch.

A refreshing new ethnic restaurant will open in your neighborhood soon


19/29

Zh Bji

Tian Peng Yuan Shuai was

The honored Grand Admiral of 800,000,

Marshall of the Heavenly River.

Under his proud hand,

The enemies of the empire met doom by sea,

Sinking beyond eye and history, or dying in mud, forgotten mayflies.

To each their duty. Names for the victorious only.

What his foes fought and died for, their societies of tools and song,

Could be of no concern. Only tomorrow and blood, blade and command.

For centuries there were no Chinese autobiographies.

Only their commentaries on the words of war and state

Applied.

Paper and ink were holy here.

All he truly saw, lost in the bureaucracy of testimonies.During his final peach banquet among the heavens, Change,

Goddess of the moon,

Was a beauteous guest before the splendors he preserved.

Who would not be a fool before her?

Who would not risk all for her attentions?

To her, he was just another drunken butcher the empress rebuked.

In apology, the admiral, abashed, resigned.

To earth descending, to be a better legend.


20/29

Later on some savage isle,

The Lord of the Flies makes a meal of a boars head,

Knowing nothing of Tian Peng Yuan Shuai,

The lives he ended or the lives he led.

One December morning,

A poet waits for April in Minneapolis

Thinking of a pretty girl, a moon, a pig.


21/29

One Day

Mother-in-law threw out the paper plate

I wrote a poem on.What was it doing there in the first place?

Was her first question.

The next was: How good could it be,

If it fit on just one?

Too late, the trash-man has come by

Leaving behind only an empty bin.

Breakfast today was a McDonalds McMuffin,

Her treat,

As she eyed my wrapper suspiciously

Between bites.

How delicious it was!


22/29

Bryan Thao Worra was born in 1973 in Laos during the Laotian

civil war. He came to the US at six months old, adopted by a

civilian pilot flying in Laos. Today, Bryan Thao Worra has aunique impact on contemporary art and literature within the

Lao, Hmong, Asian American and the transcultural adoptee

communities, particularly in the Midwest. In 2003, Thao Worra

reunited with his biological family after 30 years during his first return to Laos.

An award-winning poet, short story writer, playwright and essayist, his prolific work

appears internationally in numerous anthologies, magazines and newspapers, including

Bamboo Among the Oaks, Kartika Review, Tales of the Unanticipated, Astropoetica, Illumen

Outsiders Within, Innsmouth Free Press, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Hyphen, Bakka,

Whistling Shade, Journal of the Asian American Renaissance, and Asian American Press.

He is the author of the books BARROW, On the Other Side of the Eye and Winter Ink.

In 2009 he received an NEA Fellowship In Literature. Thao Worra curated numerous readings

and exhibits of Lao and Hmong American art including Legacies of War: Refugee Nation

Twin Cities (2010), Emerging Voices (2002), The 5 Senses Show (2002), Laod and Clear

(2003), Giant Lizard Theater (2005), Re:Generations (2005), and The Un-Named Series (2007).

He speaks nationally at colleges, schools and community institutions including the Loft

Literary Center, Intermedia Arts, the Center for Independent Artists and the Minneapolis

Institute of Art. He has worked as an arts and cultural contractor for the Minnesota Historical

Society, the Hennepin County Library System, the Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans, and

the Minnesota State Arts Board.

Thao Worra is working on his next books and several personal projects to reconnect expatriate

Lao artists and writers with their contemporary counterparts in Laos following over 35 years

of isolation.

You can visit him online athttp://thaoworra.blogspot.comor [email protected]
http://thaoworra.blogspot.com/http://thaoworra.blogspot.com/http://thaoworra.blogspot.com/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://thaoworra.blogspot.com/


23/29

Selected Awards and Recognition, 1991-2011

2011 Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative . 2010 Literacy Award, Lao Professionals of Illinois. 2009 National Endowment for the Arts, Fellowship in Literature for Poetry. 2009 Asian Pacific Leadership Award, State Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans. 2008 Artists Initiative Grant, Minnesota State Arts Board. 2007 Career Initiative Grant, Loft Literary Center. 2005 Minnesota State Arts Board Cultural Collaboration Award with Mali Kouanchao. 2002 Minnesota Playwrights Center Many Voices Artist-In-Residence. 1994 Otterbein College Quiz and Quill Poetry Contest, First and Third Place. 1994 Otterbein College Quiz and Quill Walter Lowre Barnes Short Story Contest, First Place. 1994 Otterbein College Quiz and Quill Roy Burkhart Religious Poetry Contest, Second Place. 1993 Otterbein College Quiz and Quill Personal Essay Contest, First Place. 1993 Otterbein College Quiz and Quill Roy Burkhart Religious Poetry Contest, Second Place. 1991-1992 Otterbein College Quiz and Quill Poetry Contest, Second Place. 1991 James E. Casey Memorial Scholarship. 1991 Otterbein College Ammons-Thomas Award. 1991 National Honor Society Debra Kolander Service Scholarship, Saline High School.


24/29

Partial Publications List: 1999-2011

Books

BARROW, Sams Dot Publishing, 2009

Tanon Sai Jai, Silosoth Publishing, 2009

Winter Ink, MN Center for Book Arts, 2008

On the Other Side of the Eye, Sams Dot Publishing, 2007

My Dinner with Cluster Bombs: The Tuk-Tuk Diaries, Unarmed Press, 2003

Touching Detonations, E-book, Sphinx House Press, 2003

Magazines, Journals and Anthologies

The Spirit Catches You and You Get Body Slammed, et al.How Do I Begin?, Heyday Books, 2011

Khop Jai For Nothing, Farangs, National Endowment for the Arts Writers Corner, 2010

Home Is To Box As To Leave Is To Free, et al. Kartika Review, Spring 2010.

The Last War Poem, Culture and Customs of Laos, Greenwood Publishing Group, March 2009

Selves, Voyage, Grinding Up Stones,Spring 2009.

Planting, Cha, February 2009.

Burning Eden One Branch At A Time, Language For A New Century, Norton, 2008.

Departures, Capital, et al. Journal for SE Asian American Education and Advancement, 2007

Riding the 16, Modern Life, St. Paul Almanac, 2007.

from five fragments In Our Own Words, Vol. 7, 2007.

Dream, Rebellions,Zaj, Ntsuag Sings the Blues, Unplug, April/May 2007.


25/29

Stairways In Luang Prabang, Nam, Sai Lao, Bakka Magazine, April 2007.

The Deep Ones, Before Going Feral, Illumen, Spring 2007.

To A Chinese Horse Behind Minneapolis Glass Papertiger: New World Poetry, Fall/Winter

Boun, Jaew, and The National Library In Laos, Bakka Magazine, October 2006

Daughters of Barrabas, Poetry Midwest, Summer 2006

A Question of Place Whistling Shade, Summer 2006

Soap, An Archaeology of Snow Forts, and Homonculus, Tales of the Unanticipated #28

Imperious, Whorl, Hyphen Magazine #9, Summer 2006

The Kaiju & I 8-Poem Series, G-Fan Magazine #75, Spring 2006

Evolve", The Outsiders Within Anthology, 2006

"To A Chinese Horse Behind Minneapolis Glass, and "Babylon Gallery," Kaleidowhirl, Summer 2005

A Hmong Goodbye, Poems Niederngasse, January/February 2005

A Few Unexpected Sights at Tuol Sleng, Ithuriel's Spear, February 2005

Song for a Sansei, Big Bridge #10, February 2005

Snakehead, Peaks^ Literary Journal, January 2005

The Shape, Paj Ntaub Voice Hmong Literary Journal, Winter 2004, p. 1

"Dog Soldier Haiku," Mastodon Dentist, December 2004

The Hermit Crab, Copacetic" and What Tomorrow Takes Away, Pedestal Magazine, November 2004

Poultry Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, October 2004

"Kingdoms" Tamafyhr Mountain Poetry #28, October 2004

Midwestern Conversations, Out of Line, 2004

Verbal Rorschach, Speakeasy Magazine, September 2004

Insomniacafe, Real Eight View, October 2004


26/29

The Big G, and "Secrets" Defenestration Magazine, September 20, 2004

Questions," Discoveries," and "Understanding" Banned On These Premises Exhibition, August 2004

Democracia, Perspectives, Riding The 16, The Talk, Iai Other Voices Int'l Poetry Project, 2004.

Enso, Arbutus Journal, Winter 2004

Kobe Hotel, and Oni, Big City Lit, February, 2004

Mischief In The Heavens Defenestration Magazine, February 2004.

Chances, Defenestration Magazine, January 2004.

Todays Special At The Shuang Cheng, Mid-American Poetry Review, 2004, p. 46.

My Dinner With Cluster Bombs (The Tuk-Tuk Diaries), Unarmed Press Chapbook, 2003, 16 pp.

A Song of Bangkok, Cascadia Review, December 2003

Tetragrammaton, Stirring Journal, December 2003

Champassak In January, Rock Salt Plum Journal, December 2003

Surprises In America, London Ghetto Poets, December 2003

Cocktail Napkins, Muse Apprentice Guild, December 2003

Maidens of Sivilay, and Phonsavan, Mad Poets of Terra, October 2003

Khaosan Road, 2003, and A Blessing Or A Curse. Whimperbang, Oct. 2003

Little Bear, Astropoetica, Fall 2003

Gallery 16: Zen of the Mouth, 2003, Urban Pioneer #4, Vol. II., 2003, p. 11

The Temples, Paj Ntaub Voice, Summer 2003, p. 58

The Spirit Catches You, And You Get Body Slammed, Paj Ntaub Voice, Summer 2003, p. 60

Historys Game, Paj Ntaub Voice, Summer 2003, p. 73

Voices, Urban Pioneer #2, Vol. I., 2002, p. 4

Japonsime, Laoisme, Asian Pacific American Journal, Winter 2003, pp. 124-126


27/29

Genesis 2020, Whistling Shade, Summer 2002, p. 3

Incantation of a Hooligan, Unarmed #31, 2002, p. 6

The Last War Poem Bamboo Among the Oaks, Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2002, p. 98

Fury Bamboo Among the Oaks, Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2002, p. 100

Wisdom Bamboo Among the Oaks, Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2002, pp. 101-104

Modern Life, Unarmed #29, 2002, p. 9

The Serpent Under The Rainbow, Unarmed #25, 2002, p. 3

Futura, Paj Ntaub Voice Hmong Literary Journal, Summer 2001, p. 14

GPS, Paj Ntaub Voice Hmong Literary Journal, Summer 2001, p. 17

Quixotes Jihad, Unarmed #23, 2001, p. 1

My Autopsy, Thank You, Journal of the Asian American Renaissance, Winter 2001, p. 26

Half The Battle, Journal of the Asian American Renaissance, Winter 2001, p. 45

Visual Silence, Paj Ntaub Voice Hmong Literary Journal, Winter 2001, p. 1

Fury, Paj Ntaub Voice Hmong Literary Journal, Winter 2001, p. 45

Nest Ce Pas Olympus, Whistling Shade, Winter 2001, p. 5

Heresy To Shining See, Unarmed #20, 2001, p. 15

Smoke Coil 2001, Unarmed #18, 2001, p. 4

Naked, Paj Ntaub Voice Hmong Literary Journal, Summer 2000, p. 60

Writers at War, Paj Ntaub Voice Hmong Literary Journal, Summer 2000, p. 66

Raven Remembers, USAF Forward Air Controllers Website, Spring 1999


28/29

Selected Short Stories

What Hides and What Returns, Historical Lovecraft, Innsmouth Free Press, 2011

A Model Apartment, Innsmouth Free Press, Issue 4, 2010

The Dog at the Camp, Tales of the Unanticipated, Autumn, 2006

The True Tale of Yer, Bamboo Among the Oaks, MN Historical Society Press, 2002

A Dream of Laaj, Paj Ntaub Voice, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2000


29/29

Common Ground 1 Year Anniversary, VAALA Center, Santa Ana, CA, August 4th, 2011

Slice and Spice of Asia Storytelling, Brookdale Library, Brooklyn Center, MN, May 14th, 2011

Beyond the Pure: Writers of Color Series, Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis, MN, October 26th, 2010

Lao Artists Festival, Elgin, IL, August 20-21st, 2010

Lao American Writers Summit, Minneapolis, MN, August 15th, 2010

Twin Cities Dragon Festival, St. Paul, MN, July 11th, 2010

Family Style Open Mic, Asian Arts Initiative, Philadelphia, PA, May 21 st, 2010

Otterbein College, Westerville, OH, February 25th, 2010

Birchbark Reading Series, Birchbark Books, Minneapolis, MN, January 13th, 2010

Kulture Trust Benefit, Loft Literary Center, Minneapolis, MN, June 10 th, 2009

International Lao New Year, San Francisco, CA, April 11th, 2009

Verse and Converse, Todd Boss Poetry Series, Ninas Caf, October 1st, 2008

UCSB Diversity Lectures, University of Santa Barbara Multicultural Center, Santa Barbara, CA, May 20th, 2008.

Association of Asian American Studies Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL April 17-18th, 2008.

American Intercultural Center APA Heritage Festival Celebration, UW-Green Bay, WI, April 10th, 2008.

Viterbo University, La Crosse, WI, April 9th, 2008.

Rhymefest, University of California, San Diego, CA, February 12, 2008.

Un-Named Series of Hmong and Lao Writers, Loft Literary Center, Minneapolis, MN, January 23, 2007.

Giant Lizard Theater, Convergence, Minneapolis, MN, July 6, 2007.

Tripmasters: Hmong & Lao Writers on a More Global Minnesota, Normandale Community College, March, 2007.

Special Guest Speaker, Diversicon 14, Minneapolis, MN, August 11-13, 2006.

Giant Lizard Theater, Convergence, Minneapolis, MN, July 6, 2006.

Art & Diaspora Festival, Institute for Advanced Studies, University of MN, Minneapolis, MN, April 12, 2006.

Keynote lecture, Taste of the Mountains Hmong Cultural Night Dinner, UW-Stevens Point, December 3, 2005.

between souls 2013

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