{"id":15700,"date":"2019-12-01T01:00:14","date_gmt":"2019-12-01T07:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/?p=15700"},"modified":"2019-12-01T01:32:24","modified_gmt":"2019-12-01T07:32:24","slug":"calligraphy-lesson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/archives\/15700","title":{"rendered":"Calligraphy Lesson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe sound of rain
\n<\/span><\/i>outlives us.\u201d
\n<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u2014Li-Young Lee<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

What outlives even the rain: the sound
\n<\/span>of my father\u2019s ink settling like a final breath
\n<\/span>onto the translucent skin of rice paper.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dark dew grazes the pink, creased ear
\n<\/span>of an apple blossom. Of blossoms
\n<\/span>or their proneness to bruise, I know<\/span><\/p>\n

next to nothing. All I know is that
\n<\/span>a whole forest tipped with frost
\n<\/span>trembles inside me as I apprentice myself\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

to the strength in my father\u2019s hand\u2014
\n<\/span>my small fist cradled in his
\nlike a dirge caught in a swan\u2019s throat\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

& how the world unfurls in tendrils of fine
\n<\/span>black silk between the flicks of our wrists, freed
\n<\/span>from the tip of the horsehair brush:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u5929\u6daf\u00a0 <\/span>the sky\u2019s cliff edge\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>&<\/span> \u6d77\u89d2\u00a0 <\/span>the sea\u2019s
\n<\/span><\/i>folded corner\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>\u00a0as if each stroke obliterates
\n<\/span>a coast between us, distills a year still\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

to come. After the lesson, I lay the brush
\n<\/span>gently against the gnarled forehead
\n<\/span>of the inkstone & turn to face my father\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

expecting, in innocence, the gift of a cool kiss
\n<\/span>but he no longer recognizes me.
\n<\/span>He doesn\u2019t remember that,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

in a past life, this ink we rinse
\n<\/span>off the brush so freely now
\n<\/span>was the blood that bound us together.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

GAVIN YUAN GAO<\/a><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe sound of rain outlives us.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u2014Li-Young Lee What outlives even the rain: the sound of my father\u2019s ink settling like a final breath onto the translucent skin of rice paper.\u00a0 Dark dew grazes the pink, creased ear of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2041,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[61],"tags":[25],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Jypy-45e","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15700"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2041"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15700"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15865,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15700\/revisions\/15865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}