Andrew Parkin

Star With a Thousand Moons is a major collection of new poems by Andrew Parkin. It contains “Star of a Hundred Years,” a poem of homage to Sir Run Run Shaw, one of the fathers of Chinese movies. The poem marries the ancient Greek ode to the modern film scenario format to create a poetic genre Andrew calls the scenariode. “Star of a Hundred Years” celebrates at once Sir Run Run, now over one hundred years old, as well as the art of film. “A Collection of Gourds” is a collection of lyrics reaching back further into the Chinese past of Taoist legend, the world of the wars of princes and the loves of wives and concubines. Figures from China’s imaginative life are engraved on small dry gourds, about the size of billiard balls. The poems hint at the fragmentary lives and voices of such figures, including that of the engraver and of the poet himself, who both live in the modern world which might yet be ruled by the forces symbolized in the Eight Immortals of Taoist legend.

Andrew Parkin emigrated to Canada in 1970. In 1990 he went to Hong Kong as Head and Chair Professor of English and Fellow of Shaw College, instigating Chinese-English poetry readings by local and visiting poets. He taught graduate courses, creative writing and children’s literature. Since he has been abroad, Andrew has visited Canada every year to be with family and friends. His first three collections of poetry were published in Canada, including his previous Ekstasis book, Yokohama Days, Kyoto Nights. He has given both academic lectures and interactive poetry readings in many countries around the world.