A Secret in a Distant Place: Guan Zhang's Poetry Collection

By Guan Zhang and 張冠

A Secret in a Distant Place is Zhang Guan’s first collection of poems, the poetry collection includes modern poems written by Zhang Guan from 2005 to 2010, the traditional Chinese edition of the book was published in 2015.

Afterword

Writing poems is a habit, to think and express the most sincere beauty and most real existence i

• Language: English
• Publisher: EHGBooks
• Release date: May 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781647849924

Book preview

Author’s Note

I remember it was a night when my roommates in my dormitory were asleep. Under the dim bedside lamp light, I picked up my pen and wrote down few lines of words in my notebook. Afterwards, the same scene happened frequently. Gradually, I found that the number of lines in my notebook increased. I do not remember exactly when and where I wrote my first poem, but I do remember it happened when I was in elementary school. I do not remember the exact content of the poem. I only remember that I was supposed to do my homework, but instead, I wrote a poem.

My love for poetry, specifically modern poetry, grew stronger after I went to university. As a young man in twenties full of passion and romance, confusion and rebellion, I seemed to find my answers in these poems. The answers may not be the only ones, because with the passage of time and increase in experiences, I may have different understandings. But the only thing that will not change is to not surrender to the mundane world and bow down to mediocrity, the courage to question and challenge, and the sincere, young heart that continues to beat.

Every time I walk into a bookstore, I would spend some time in front of the poetry section. Although there is only a small poetry section with few people wandering in front of it, when I read the lines of passionate poetry words, I deeply believe that loneliness is not that terrible.

I began to write poems again when I was in university. It has been a long time since I wrote the poem in elementary school. I know that this is not an era where people like to read poems, especially amongst the younger generations, poems seem to get further and further from us. Because in this era, poems could not bring us pretty girls of our dreams, nor could it provide us with