I don't like crows. In the poem "C," crows are predatory, killing other birds and so forth. But in my morning walks, there were always crows, particularly at certain times of the year. And they're very aggressive, very visible and loud. They're not at all likable, but they have to be dealt with. They are part of the picture, the art in the morning. You cannot deny their reality.
Shirley Geok-lin LimIt's as if I'm setting aside the husband and son, you know, the patriarchal world, for the world of the muse. This is the world of writing.
Shirley Geok-lin LimCrows appear in many of my new unpublished poems. In these walks, they take on a symbolic life apart from their irritating, undeniable, interruptive presence. I figure them differently.
Shirley Geok-lin LimIf you've been in a symbolic struggle long enough, even when the struggle is over, you don't know it's over.
Shirley Geok-lin LimFor a while they wore suits or pants suits, and pants suits are kind of a women's appropriation of male costume, work costume. For me, it wasn't Western feminism or the Western workspace. It was my growing up in a house with a bunch of boys, so that male costuming just became my mode of appropriation way before, you know, Betty Friedan came along.
Shirley Geok-lin Lim