Surfing the Torrent

By Jonathan Chaves

Surfing the Torrent is about a quest for truth, goodness, and beauty in a world that increasingly questions their very existence. The first of the two parts consists of poems derived from experiences in Greece revealing the birth of love for the place, and a woman of that place, the author's wife. The second part expands to journeys to Europe, India, Taiwan, China, Japan, and through the US, all of which contribute to the winding road. The poems explore varying worldviews and religions, eventually discovering theosis and spiritual growth. Humor plays a role, as it too can be revelatory. The reader is invited to enjoy the poems in a way that is elusive in much modern poetry.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: Jul 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9781666782301

Jonathan Chaves

Jonathan Chaves is a scholar and translator of Chinese poetry whose books have been awarded the American Literary Translators Association’s Lucien Stryk award for best Asian translation and nominated in the translation category for the National Book Award. He is professor of Chinese literature at The George Washington University.

Book preview

Surfing the Torrent

Jonathan Chaves

Surfing the Torrent

Copyright ©

2023

Jonathan Chaves. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers,

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Resource Publications

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199

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8

th Ave., Suite

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97401

www.wipfandstock.com

paperback isbn: 978-1-6667-8228-8

hardcover isbn: 978-1-6667-8229-5

ebook isbn: 978-1-6667-8230-1

06/15/23

Table of Contents

Title Page

Remarks

I: Greece

Chapter 1: Monemvasia

Chapter 2: Corner Table

Chapter 3: Gyzi

Chapter 4: Women and Fishermen

Chapter 5: Transformation

Chapter 6: Ocean and Olives

Chapter 7: Milopotamos

Chapter 8: Journey by Air and Water

Chapter 9: Landscape of Thought

Chapter 10: To a Woman Who is a Fountain

Chapter 11: An Island

Chapter 12: Lassithi—for Anna’s birthday

Chapter 13: At the Village of Fountains

Chapter 14: A Festival

Chapter 15: Olga’s House

Chapter 16: Zagoria

Chapter 17: Milies

Chapter 18: Behind the Wall

Chapter 19: Rough Ocean

Chapter 20: Kandia

Chapter 21: The Color of the Ocean Last Summer

Chapter 22: To the Master of Ships

Chapter 23: Remembering Gianni

II: Journey and Destination

The Patriarch

Three Sonnets on Memory

Chapter 29: Two Poems on Marriage

Welcome Back to the Season of Dripping Trees

The Girl on the Orange Line

Three Birds

Rosemont Manor

A Wall Painting

Remembering Frost

To the Memory of Arthur Waley

Acrostic Eulogy for Burton Watson

Chapter 40: Winston Miroy—In Memoriam

Chapter 41: In Memoriam: A Sonnet for Vicki Greene

Chapter 42: A Villanelle in Memoriam for Jack the Dog

Walking the Dog in Rain

Lady with Lapdog—for Julia and Enzo

When Birds Judge Poetry

Scylla and Charybdis

The Grove of Chaddanta

Wanderer in India

Wanderer in China

A Sonnet on Marlowe’s Faustus

Ekphrasis on Fuseli’s Nightmare

On Finding a Sketch of a Baby’s Hand

Hua-lien

The Cave of Ghosts

A Gothic Dream

Prolegomena to the Apocalypse

A Ballade of Wavering Faith

To a Feminist Assistant Dean

Joint Message from APPLE, GOOGLE, and FACEBOOK

When Toads Explode

The Snakehead Comes to Crofton Pond

Why I Won’t be Going to Bugfest

A Ballade of the Coronavirus

Villanelle for a Lady of the Quill

Water Series—Low Tide

Villanelle on A Photograph by David Miretsky

Nude Holding Necklace

Galina at the Window

Lina

Ekphrastic Sonnets for The Iron Man

Shining Willow Way —Found Poetry in Maryland

Eirwen’s Sewing-Kit

Two Sonnets for Fr. John Witek, S.J. —In Memoriam

To a Wild Goose Surfing the Torrent of Great Falls

The Key-Hole

Finis

To Anna

for making me happier than I ever

thought I would be

Remarks

The Greek poems were all written in 1978, in Greece and in some cases shortly after returning to the USA. The poems in the second part date from various times in my life. In most of the more recent ones I have followed the example of Neo-Formal poets of today, writing in such forms as the sonnet, the villanelle, and generally with meter and rhyme, including one attempt at terza rima, although there are examples of blank verse as well.

The encouragement and support of Catharine Savage Brosman has been essential in my decision to attempt a book-length collection. I am a great admirer of her work, and I am grateful to her beyond words.

Some of these poems have appeared in Ironwood, The Greenfield Review, The G.W. Review, Sino-Western Cultural Relations Journal, Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture, and Academic Questions.

Jonathan Chaves

Alexandria, Virginia

May, 2020

I

GREECE

1

Monemvasia

In the sunlight captured in her hair than which nothing

is brighter, more golden,

more like waves of silk,

I see impossibly white houses painted against flat cliffs

or blinding flashes of love on inconceivable waters.

In the darkness of her voice in anger

are hidden chambers covered with blue paintings

of sufferings and tortures or clarinets

in wild mourning for drowned swimmers and lost dances.

On the slopes of her body which I climb in ecstasy

are no trees but rocks softer than trees,