Cathy Xinman is a longtime resident of Canada who writes poems in English and Chinese. Below, you can read her English-language poem, “When Love Arrives”. Her English-language collection is titled Where You Love Yourself.
When Love Arrives
Tkaronto,
You speak to me
With the language of water and standing trees,
With “richness, abundance, and fertility,”
With “Turtle Island’s Mesopotamia,”
With the language of brilliance.
To peoples and cultures,
You speak with this voice—
An advanced and cosmopolitan tongue,
With your affection,
With time, riddles, and dreams.
They see Toronto Spark,
A more equal and empathetic society envisions
The Arts for Canadians Tomorrow Society ACTS.
It sees rapids, it sees deserts,
It sees the ancient, it sees the future.
The rushing river of time,
The towering Niagara Falls of Canada,
Amid the pouring rain,
The vast Atlantic waters—
They interpret eyes brimming with pain
And voice visions of love and imagination.
In this moment,
On this sacred land,
We proclaim loudly:
Here we are,
With our art,
With the ancient dignity of human culture.
The ideals and dreams have never vanished,
When love arrives.
Cathy Xinman’s English-language collection is titled Where You Love Yourself. Learn more about the communities that make up Canada on the Toronto Spark website.
