Taichung's Elevated Trains Finally Arrive

     The elevated Taichung section of the Taiwan Railroad opened for business on Oct. 16, 2016. The opening had been delayed a number of times (see blog post  Taichung's Uplifting Vision  ) but finally they got it done; well, not completely done. They completed enough so at least the trains could run. The new stations they added have not been opened, and the structure under the stations' fourth track at Fengyuan, Tantze, Taiyuan, and even the main Taichung Station haven't been constructed yet because it would have interfered with the service on the surface line. 

     No more will we hear the ding ding ding of the railroad crossing speakers, or encounter red lights and guards at the dozens of crossings; traffic is moving more smoothly already. But the railroad underpasses and overpasses are still in place and there is still traffic there. It is a guessing game which roads will be connected first over the now abandoned surface tracks and which underpasses will be filled. In all there are 38 crossings: 17  grade level, 18 underpasses and 3 overpasses that will become obsolete.

     The northeastern section of Taichung, past Dongshan Road, will have a new housing project added to the new vehicular and bicycle bridges over the Han River  on Sung-Tsu 5th Road. Another bridge, near Wagor Private school on Guang-Fu 19th Road,  will connect to a new road that runs through the project to Beitun Road, opening up a whole sector of Taichung previously blocked to Sung-Tsu Road. The Han River is not bridged again until the Highway 74 overpass, perhaps two miles further north. The road under highway 74 will be built across the old tracks first, due February 2017, and access can be gained to the overpass entrance and exit ramps or to Han River West Road where traffic must turn south. near the new light-rail train depot, it becomes a two-way street with yet another road crossing the old tracks to Beitun Road. At Sungtzu Road, Taiwan Rail will have a new transfer  station with  it before heading east to the depot terminus. The light rai will circle Taichung from the Westside and meet up with Taiwan Rail again to form a loop at the Daqing station. 

     Our local station, Taiyuan Road, will be a four track station with platforms between each pair, northbound on the west, southbound on the east, following the trend set by the Japanese who followed the British model. Only the current stations will have four tracks; two for local train layovers. The new stations will still have two tracks with no layover for locals; the express trains will be scheduled around them. Express trains will pass through the station off  platform, not in between. Between stations, there are still only one north and one southbound track. Until the fourth northbound bound layover track is constructed, the local and express will share one track at all stations.  

 At the Taiyuan station, a crook in the road has been created for handicapped and 'kiss and ride' parking, with a taxi stand along the main road. This will be dismantled after Taiyuan road is connected making  the underpass obsolete. Meanwhile, there is a traffic problem with taxis backing up off the main road to make a u-turn to go north or east on Taiyuan Road. I have seen a disregard for traffic rules already and an accident is waiting to happen. The taxi stand and 'kiss and ride' should be switched and an extra traffic light put in place for taxis making u-turns, but I'm not holding my breath for that to happen. Meanwhile, the new parking areas under the el for motorcycles and cars is already filled to capacity. More areas are urgently needed if strap-hangers are to park and ride. 
      As a bicyclist, I am hoping that the plan to turn the old rail line into a bike path and mall comes to fruition.  Mayor Lin wants a path to run from Fengyuan to Wu-er. I dream of the day bicyclists can have right-of-way to the Westside from Beitun. 

     The old Taichung Station will thankfully remain as a museum and tourist attraction, a terminal for BRT buses to run up Taiwan Boulevard to the Westside and across the Dadu mountains to the coastal cities, even a shuttle to the Taichung International Airport. But for now, to gain access to the elevated line to its east, one must walk through a maze across a temporary bridge over the old tracks,

and into the new building. The grand concourse and waiting area are still under construction as is the park and shopping mall planned to be there. Because of this, the section directly under the trains is overcrowded and chaotic. The entrance to the station from the east side has a closed road that abruptly ends but one that pedestrians can use to exit towards Taroko Mall. The building that the city has chosen to demolish to open up traffic to the east side entrance is in public domain, disputed by its owners.   

      The Taichung station platforms are wide and bright with warning lights along the edges that light when a train is arriving, similar to the HSR platform lights. The platforms are extra long to accommodate the eight-car trains currently in use; even ten cars in the future. Because the main rotunda has not been completed, the ticket offices and machines are ill-placed  in the lobby, and the escalators, stairs, and elevators to the platforms are not yet all in use.  The LED signs are large and clear. There are plenty of benches in the center of the platforms, that is on the 

southbound side as the northbound has one track only and the platform is partitioned in half until it is constructed; this was an accommodation until the grade-level tracks were abandoned. 

     The rotunda of the new Taichung Train Station will be roomy, for sure, and it will be air-conditioned. Solar panels are being placed on its roof to perhaps make it more green and energy self sufficient. We will see

how that works out. 

     It may well be overdue, but finally Taichung is on its way to redeveloping its downtown area, creating a gateway corridor  to beautiful Taichung Park,  and creating a park near in the abandoned Empire Sugarcane processing plant on the Eastside near the relocated Jian-Guo Market. It all makes for a tourist hub for local and international travelers to Sun Moon Lake, Taroko Gorge, Guguan Hot Springs, even Alishan Mountain and the Southern Branch of the Palace Museum;  all of central Taiwan. 

Preceding station		Taiwan Railway Administration		Following station
Taiyuan toward Keelung		Western Line Mountain Line		Daqing toward Kaohsiung

• Future

Preceding station		Taiwan Railway Administration		Following station
Jingwu (under construction) toward Keelung		Western Line		Wuchuan (under construction) toward Kaohsiung
Preceding station		Taichung Metro		Following station
Jingwu (under construction) toward Fengyuan		Red Line		Wuchuan (under construction) toward Xinwuri
B8 (planned) toward BA5 (planned)		Blue Line		B10 (planned) Terminus
O8 (planned) toward OA4 (planned)		Orange Line		O10 (planned) toward O17 (planned)

Bowling For Dollars With Ariel

10-13-16

 Ariel has been in Taiwan two nights and hasn’t contacted me; I am not contacting him. Simone asked me if he arrived but she should be asking her mother; I presume Ariel is with her. He said he would stay for a week and then go back to Shen-Zhen to teach and do stand-up comedy. 

10-17-16

Ariel is still in Brooklyn. Simone contact him and he replied  saying he couldn't use the plane ticket he bought because Alice was in the studio. He wouldn't get the refund for his ticket for months and he couldn't get enough money to buy another ticket until the temp agency (in California) mailed him his money.

10-18-16 

Ariel is indeed going back to Asia via Taiwan. He said he was going to Shen-Zhen afterwards. Now he is on a plane, having gotten the money from the agency he was waiting for, so he said.  All he wrote was about disappointment in Alice and finding a job in New York.  I hope to have a meal with him, but he's not staying in our condo and hasn't asked to. I'm assuming he's staying with his mother in Nantou and that I will see him when he comes to Taichung.

10-22-16

I spoke with Ariel from poolside yesterday morning. He was at a Family Mart because there is no Wi-Fi where his mother bought a condo, somewhere, with the money from the Taipei condo I bought and she sold. 

 From NYC, Ariel wrote he would stay a week in Taiwan and go to Shen-Zhen, but yesterday he said he may stay for a month. His visitor's visa has a one-month limit. If he leaves November 19, he will not only miss our Thanksgiving dinner, but it will be more difficult to pick up a class in Shen-Zhen before the holiday. If he gets a sub job in December, he won't have income until the end of January. He had written that he wanted to attend the stand-up Take-Out Comedy contest in Hong Kong but the finals are tonight. He must get money from Libby to tide him over. She is his only enabler now with Alice's tap turned off. 

10-26-16

     His mother is spewing  New Testament crap on him, and he’s not flinching a muscle; too bad he's Jewish He suggested seeing a World Series game but he can't get up early enough to get here and he's not staying over.

10-28-16 

     The chaos of Ariel’s sporadic Messenger contacts left me guessing if we would get together. Leona contacted me during Mandarin class to say her exercise class was cancelled and she was game for lunch. Ariel contacted me after I made plans for lunch with Leona  saying he was coming at 2:45. When I got home, Leona informed me that Huai-Ya had asked to join us for lunch at E-Z Con so we rode the scooter there and met her. As we sat to eat, Ari Messaged he was in Taichung already. I adjusted my plans to meet him; we said goodbye to Huai-Ya and Leona rode me home to get the Yo-Yo Card, add money to it, and ride me to the station.

      I went bowling and had dinner with Ariel yesterday. So long as we do father-son things, he’s delightful. I met him in front of the old Taichung train station; we walked through the new station to the Taroko Mall. Three games, 575 NT including shoes and ball; my first game I scored 120 and was on my way to higher scores with a lead off spare in the second match when I slipped on the oily lane and sprained my left hamstring. I could barely throw and scored 95. I recovered to 107 in the third match but the damage was done. Ariel, who lost badly in the first match, recovered to get two 131 scores but I still beat him overall by one point! It was funny and we had a riot giving each other high fives and all.

      My leg feeling better, we walked back to get the MBT in front of the old station and rode to the stop after the Natural History Museum for dinner at Belling’s, but Belling’s, who we walked right past had gone fishing so we walked back to Splendor for me to get cheese at Goodwell and crossed the street for dinner in the food court at Sogo. We took the BRT back to Taichung Station where he went to got in a shared taxi back to Nantou and I took the new elevated Taiwan Railroad local home. Leona picked me up at the Taiyuan station as she had brought me earlier.

1-30-16 

After Ariel wrote bitingly how our "brotherly camaraderie" took a hit by my not complying with his request to let him sleep over here, I told him the truth; Leona doesn't want to see him. I softened and asked Leona if Ariel could come see a baseball game and have dinner over, but she refused. I can understand why. Ariel is a live wire; once he came, it would be difficult to get him to leave, and I don't want him to stay over, either. 

      I do not support his return to Taiwan. He has emotional issues that require counseling. Already he is complaining having to stay with his crazy mother. He could have come but didn't come into Taichung to watch the ballgame at TGIF Fridays with me because his mother told him not to come back late; it disturbs her. Ariel wants to have his cake and eat it too; enjoy himself with us and sponge off his mother.  

     After the first bowing match that he lost, he adapted his internal dialogue to compensate. To him, it was then a total points of the three matches that would determine the "winner." Even after I hurt my leg, he kept up talking like a sports broadcaster and offering me high fives. At the conclusion of the three matches, he totaled up our three game scores. To his chagrin, he had "lost" to me by one point. We had a good laugh about that but I detected he was sincerely disappointed. 

     On the BRT to Belling's, Ariel took photos of me sitting and sent them to my cell phone. I feel old when I am around him; it's the way he treats me, like I'm some sort of guest on his talk show, very patronizing and insincere.

     The Cubs have won the World Series, the Rhinos have won the Taiwan Series, but I have won nothing. My son is not a "loser" but he calls himself one and he treats himself that way. He is 31 years old and relying on others to pay his way, unwilling to toe the line on any job or get the credentials he needs to teach legitimately. I am not in competition with him but he likes comparing himself to me. I did it the hard way, but he is trying to do it the easy way. No good can come of it.  He may as well be bowling for dollars. 

     a mother's son returns the favor

that slap that made him breathe

together they cry unabated 

back to their lives awaited

from birth through separation 

perhaps they will walk upright

abandon their struggles

crawl out of the night

assure each other

that all is alright

give and take a bequest 

with no fight or resistance

only childlike insistence

only faith and fate

when a son returns the favor

The 32nd World Congress of Poets in Tainan, Taiwan

The Lead-up 

8-26-16 Fri. 

Thanks to a post from a Facebook poet who was going, I got the heads up on this conference, caught in time, six days before the deadline. Here’s what I wrote to the contact person last evening:

Hi Lulu: Let me introduce myself. I am David Barry Temple, a poet living in Taichung. I would like to attend the 32nd World Congress of Poets and even submit two poems for the World Poetry Anthology 2016. I have a few questions to facilitate my entry 

1. Need I pay $600 (Oct. 22-27, 2016) six days and five nights for accommodations, transportation, and meals if I will be travelling to the conference from my home in Taichung, eating and on my own? Would it still be possible to attend?  What would the entrance fee be? 

2. I would submit two poems to participate in the World Poetry Anthology 2016 and pay $50 for the editing cost, will attach my poetry, two photos, and self introduction in PDF file (no more than 150 words) if you can clarify the details. Please e-mail me. I am aware that the due date is August 31.

8-30-16

  I got a response from one of the organizers of the Poetry Conference in Tainan in October. She apologized for my first request being ignored a week ago and said it must have gotten lost in the junk file. I was told a one page, two-poem + photo+ introduction in their anthology would cost 1500 NT-$50 and a day at the conference 1000 NT-$33; four days for 3000 NT-$100. I wrote back that I could only attend on Sunday - the opening ceremony, meetings and dinner - but I would like to submit two poems. I submitted PDF copies of "Miss Lonelyhearts" and "Plum Rain, Suddenly," one old poem and one new. I also submitted my "Proudly serving Brooklyn since 1954" photo in front of Carvel ice cream and a new introduction. 

9-1-16 Thurs. 

     The outcome of my inquiry into the 32^nd Congress of Poetry meeting in Tainan at the end of October is, courtesy of the Chairman, to attend without cost. A request that I share the event with other local Taiwan poets was all the asking; I did so last evening posting the event to Taipei Writers Group, Taiwan Writers, and Kaohsiung Writing Group,  mentioning that similar arrangements could be made for other participants.  

Chairman Tsai Chi-Lan (Luerhman Fisher)

The introduction I wrote and sent for inclusion in the anthology shows a poet serious about his craft since 1978, active recitation, published, with a career in pedagogy just as long, with a wife, four grown children, and retirement to show; a seasoned veteran, and it's all true. The photo I sent of me, like a punk bohemian, has attitude. Though I was invited for the five day event, I politely declined and said I would attend the opening ceremony, events and dinner, on Sunday, Oct. 25, and the closing ceremony and award presentation on Tuesday, Oct. 27th.

9-5-16 Mon. 

     A week after I told my wife, Leona, about the 32^nd World Poets Congress, She did some research and found out who was running the show; hard-core Taiwan independence people were running the show. Even my favorite  Taiwan Socialist dude hero, Mr. Su Beng (Shi Chao-Hui) was an honorary supporter. She saw the tours the congress was going to be taking in Tainan, and the fancy hotel the group would be staying at. I asked her again if she wanted to go and she said ‘yes’. We could go down Sat., Oct. 24 for the welcome dinner and stay three nights through Monday, coming home Tuesday afternoon after the closing ceremony, or even go up to Taipei to complete with them to tour the Presidential Office before others  return to wherever they came from. I wrote an e-mail to Rita asking if her invitation to me also included my wife.

9-7-16                                                                            

Event Organizer Rita Tsai

Rita Tsai wrote back saying she asked her father, the Chairman, if I may bring my wife to the 32^nd Congress of Poets, and  he said, “Both of you are very welcome to the event." He is happy that I am bringing my wife with me to Tainan.  "He also said you are one lucky guy that your wife supports you in the Poetry World.” I gave her our ID # as requested for the three-night hotel reservation. 

9-12-16

   I mentioned the circumstances surrounding my attending the 32nd Poets Congress when I attended  Taipei Writers Group's Critique Meet. Jeremy, the only poet there yesterday, was a bit interested. He asked for Rita Tsai's e-mail address and may contact her. The others were put off by the cost. Some said they saw the post I had sent.

9-13-16

      There has been no response from Michael or Darren, two local Taichung writers, about going with me to the WCP.  I sent the WCP info to them.  In all, there are four or five ex-pat writers in Taiwan who are interested in participating in the 32nd WCP; Malcolm, from Kaohsiung Writing Workshop is the latest. I don't know if anyone besides me will get or take up the offer go. Quenntis Ashby, asked about the 32nd Congress of Poets. He is in the  KWW Facebook group, too. He has taken to posting his  poems there. We have had three chats since he responded. 

The Preparation

10-17-16

I was contacted by Rita Tsai yesterday morning asking for my and Leona's birthday for travel insurance. I asked if I would be reciting my poems during the event; Quenntis said he was told he was. Rita confirmed on Oct. 23, I would go on stage for 5-10 minutes. She said there would be an interpreter in English and Mandarin Chinese. I suggested I read my poem in Mandarin myself. She said that would be great, but I am not really prepared to do so. I spent a few hours trying to translate "Plum Rain Suddenly" while sitting up the river, but a translation does not make for interpretative poetry; the poem would have no intentional rhythm and inappropriate vocabulary. 

"Plum Rain Suddenly" words: 
https://hanriverpoems.blogspot.tw/2016/06/plum-rain-suddenly.html
live reading:
https://youtu.be/GYRK_znHSnY

     When I got home, I turned on the Google translator and the poem matched the lines I had worked on earlier; not that I was right, but both of us are wrong, I think. I shifted gears; now I would be satisfied if I could perform the poem from memory. I have most of it memorized after practicing a dozen times, with gestures and phrasing. "Miss Lonelyhearts" is a longer poem and I haven't begun to memorize it yet.

10-18-16

I IM'ed Rita Tsai to say say that I wouldn't have time to read both poems and a translation. She said she understood. I asked if friends and family could attend Sunday afternoon and she replied there were only 109 seats. 

10-19-16

My Mandarin tutor, Cheryl (Zhou Zhi-Xuan) offered to translate "Plum Rain Suddenly". I've already told Rita Tsai I wouldn't be reading a translation so anything that Cheryl does is for the interpreter to read. 
I am bemused by the whole WCP thing. I can turn it into whatever I like. I'm working on two levels; as a writer and as a teacher. The two personas bounce off each other, not taking the other seriously. I can boast of Tainan Mayor Lai Ching-Te being there or of being invited with the entourage to visit the President Office in Taipei, but it doesn't matter to me; it won't sway me to abandon my lighter side and become full of myself. I didn't join to win a contest.

10-21-16

I refuse to let any part of the WCP be boring. Quenntis might hang with us for four days though Saturday night dinner. I plan to go swimming in the hotel's pool, and I agreed that Leona contact her friend to do something together one evening. 

Quenntis' magic finger zapper

    Quenntis' choice of poems is more abstract compared with mine. I showed him my selection from the WCP anthology and he advised me to remove the second verse from "Miss Lonelyhearts" for its crude content. Not that I want to be a shock jock, but the disgusting images set up the clinker:"Will we smirk at our bodies of flesh in the cosmos?" when showing how shallow people can be in entering love relationships. 

The poem "Miss Lonelyhearts":
https://unpublished-rhyme.blogspot.tw/2016/07/miss-lonelyhearts.html

My Mandarin tutor spent hours poetically translating "Plum Rain Suddenly" into Mandarin. We spent two hours in class going over and editing it more; she wanted to know exactly what I meant by each image so it wouldn't get lost in translation. I hope the translator reads her work after I read in English. No interpreter has asked what our poems mean. Quenntis and I had a laugh wondering if some young thing would be saddled with translating "Miss Lonelyhearts" realism. 

10-22-16 Sat.

This evening the congress begins. Since the end of August, when I found out about the local poetry reading, I have taken it seriously. 

The Congress Itself 

10-23-16 Sun. 
      We arrived at the hotel at 4:00pm Saturday, and went to our room. I then went back down to register and receive materials; a laptop case with WCP materials. Leona looked in the anthology and didn’t see my profile page. I  was a little hurt hearing her say that the anthology must be for ‘real poets’ but I ignored her; she then found my page listed alphabetically by my first name.

The Tainan Philharmonic Choir with Professor Huang Nan-Hai

Tsai Tze-Min, Quenntis Ashby,Fang Yaw-Chien, and me

     The first night was the Gala Dinner at the Tayih Landis Hotel. It was an indication of things to come. The seating arrangement was made according to the poets' origins and language; My wife and I were seated at an international table with poets from South Africa (Quenntis), Mongolia, Singapore, Romania, and a few local poets. Other round tables had the Japanese, S. Korean delegation, and honored guests. The entertainment was from a chorus of legally blind singers, the Tainan Philharmonic Chorus, and local musicians on traditional instruments. There was even a trio of little sisters reciting Taiwanese poetry. We were welcomed by Chairman Tsai, and Honarary Chairman Baek, but Mayor Lai couldn't make it. It was great to see 99 year-old Su Beng, the 'Father of Taiwan Socialism.' A few poets read their work. In between, poets chatted, exchanged poetry collections, and got to know each other. 

Six poets remembered for what they are

     Laughing at the Romanian poetess at the cusp of the 32^nd World Congress of ‘Pretentious’ Poets has been fun.  I considered her lucky to be first to read for the full delegation. Quenntis has been saddled by her to be her photographer; I wonder how long he will put up with it. She even took food off his plate at dinner without permission.

A Lang Kim, renowned S. Korean poet 

      The second days started bright and early with the Opening Ceremony at the National Museum of Taiwan Literature. It was then that Tainan Mayor Lai Ching-Te addressed the Congress. A special award was given to Su Beng by the Honorary Chairman from S. Korea, Baek Han -Yi .

 32 WCP Honary President Baek Han-Yi  /Chairman Tsai with Tainan Mayor Lai Chi-Te












Su Beng (Shi Chao-Hui)"Father of Taiwan Socialism"

     In the afternoon, it was time for the poetry recitation. When other poets got up to read, no one had memorized their poem I nailed my recitation of “Plum Rain Suddenly” in 4:30 seconds with another 3:30 for Teacher Zhou Zhi-Xuan's translation. A professional video is being made of the event. We were allotted five minutes each but no one kept to it. In the end, there was some time left over. 
     I am proud that I was one poet who didn’t read from a  paper or smart phone screen. Not more than a few embellished their recitation with song or gesture. I was told I received the loudest applause after my reading.
     The Romanian poetess had them let her read her poem again because she didn’t like the environment at the Gala Opening Dinner; people were talking over her poetry. 

      The reading of Zhou Zhi-Xuan's translation of "Plum Rain Suddenly" by two fine interpreters. 

From the  Mongolian Writers Union,, L. Dashnya

10-25-16 Tues. 

      Sitting here in the Conference Room of the Tainan Library of Taiwan Literature, I listen to the closing remarks from Baek Han-yu, the S. Korean diplomat of poetry. While he does, I have an opportunity to sum up some feelings and notions about our four days here.

      The Chairman of WCP, Tsai Chi-Lan, was funny saying there had been no other closing ceremony attempted before this congress because most of the participants had already gone by then; about one-third remained here this morning. I am here, as a bookend, to bring closure; we are going home before the entourage heads out to lunch and a day and night at Sun Moon Lake.

      Most of the poets I have met have been nice people. Some have even been good poets. Only one has been annoying and conceited, getting into as many photo ops as she could, trying to steal every scene. One participant, who chooses to remain anonymous, went to complain about her and she was given a private docent to suffer her.

Taiwanese Poets 

Japanese Poets


Tainan Cultural Touring

Quenntis joins me "Over The Rainbow" at a lunch break

Seated with Police of Japanese Occupation in Taiwan

10-25-16 Tues.   Monday was set aside for us to get to know the "cultural capital of Southern Taiwan," Tainan. The sun was hot but the sky was crystal clear as we headed out early in two buses. Our first stop was at the National Museum of Taiwan History; I saw creative displays illustrating major events that make Taiwan a unique entity, indigenous settlers, Dutch, Spanish, and French colonizers, Koxinga, the Ming Dynasty pirate who used Taiwan to fight the Qing in vain, the Japanese who annexed and built the island up, and elite refugees from the Chinese civil war that, with help from the American victors , came to rule with 37 years of martial law. 

At The Matzu Temple

      The Chihkan Towers were our next stop, but Leona and I passed on the tour to cool our heels in a tea shop across the street; we had visited the historical site before. 
   We then visited a large Buddhist Temple with its Matzu protectors and relaxed with tea in the conference room. Chairman Tsai had contributed generously to this temple, one that was near his childhood home, and he shared his memories with us. We even visited that home of the self-made sponsor who rose from poverty and has given back so much to the people of Taiwan.  
     Finally, we took a ride on a barge up the Green Tunnel, a sliver of man-made river from Dutch times used for transporting goods, now a tourist spot shaded by mangroves of four kinds. It was nice to get out of the heat fort a while.

Sunset over Eternal Golden Castle

     The last stop before dinner was Eternal Golden Castle, Taiwan's defense against the Japanese, where we strolled around and saw a beautiful sunset. After that, we parted ways with our entourage for dinner with Leona's childhood friend and her family. 

 10-26-16  Wed. 

Passing through the Green Tunnel

     It is good to be back from the WCP troupe in Tainan. Two more days touring in Sun Moon Lake and Taipei would have been overkill. By yesterday morning 2/3 of the original participants had gone. 
     Most of the poets in the anthology didn't go or went and didn't read. Only the sincerity of Chairman Tsai and his hard working daughter, Rita, humbled the event. The tragedy of his eldest son, Rita's brother, moved me. The family accomplished a well-planned series of events that no pretension could tarnish.

Reflections 

10-25-16 Tues. 

  Quenntis and I with Taiwanese civic leader during  Occupation in the
 library of the National Museum of Taiwan Literature

     To all the ex-pat writers in Taiwan who didn't avail themselves of the offer to participate, you missed  a great time.

  The delegation from Mongolia that we shared a table with was lovely; we became very close  L. Dashnya even invited me to his hotel room for a drink which I regretfully declined to walk through an enormous department store next to the hotel with Leona; I needed a drink after that. 

     So many poets shared kind moments with us.  Mr. Baek, the WCP Honorary Pres. from S. Korea, gave me collection of his life works. Meiri Ong Kondo, the daughter of an exiled Taiwan independence writer, gave me an English copy of his landmark book, Taiwan; A History of Agonies. Yaw-chien Fang, a professor of Taiwanese  at National Taichung University of Education, chatted with me about starting a poetry festival here in Taichung one day! I met, thanked, and shook hands with the mayor of Tainan and the father of Taiwan's socialist movement.

       No one  on Facebook or  face to face, reacted when I told them the WCP was run by Taiwan independence supporters. None of them flinched at my remarks about the group's a-political poet contributors. Perhaps they didn't know, or perhaps they had already made up their minds not to go. 
    Did they know the flack that the Chairman had gotten from the Chinese in Taiwan who attacked him in the media?  AIT sent no representative to the WCP nor did The PRC or KMT. Mr. Tsai put up with a lot of crap to keep politics out, but even the DPP Ministry of Culture shunned him. The grief Chairman Tsai shouldered landed him in the hospital a few times with high blood-pressure. In the end, he got the recognition he deserved, but he spent a lot of money and time suffering to get it. Every poet there appreciated his sacrifice. 
     Rita Tsai, her husband , and a staff of one hundred worked so hard to make the WCP a success. It wasn't easy with the grief their family had suffered recently; a loss of a loved one.  She gave up a career in Vancouver to return and help her father produce this show.  To see the smile on her father's face throughout the five day event meant the world to her. I will always be indebted  to Rita for the kindness she showed to Leona and me, treating us like part of her family.  For the 32nd World Congress of Poets, hers was the rhythm that made everything rhyme.