I WANT TO TELL THE FISH
I want to tell the fish,
Eat only the bait,
not the hook.
When you eat the bait,
start from its edge and
slowly gnaw
bit by bit.
Never ever gobble it in one go.
—from 2014 Rattle Young Poets Anthology
__________
Why do you like to write poetry?
Tianyue Xia: “Poems are beautiful. When I want to share a secret with a friend and don’t want others to know it, I can say it in the poem. I like Su Dongpo best among all the ancient Chinese poets. He wrote the greatest poem about the moon. And I’m the moon. I like Du Fu, too, because I can understand his poems.”