Epoch Times reporter Sarah Liang in Hong Kong‘On the Beating Up of Sarah Liang’ by Damian Robin The Society May 12, 2021 Culture, Human Rights in China, Poetry 12 Comments . Sarah Liang is a veteran reporter with the Hong Kong Epoch Times who was recently assaulted by communist agents. It seems there’s little hope to bless __as Hong Kong’s hard time hardens. Its skin-thin blossoms’ fallen mess __is brushed from Hong Kong gardens. On Springtime trunks, Wind’s mallets bang __then floral debris settles. The Epoch Times’ staff’s Sarah Liang __drops scattered blood like petals. A journalist for 20 years __on TV screen and paper, Before her, ill intention clears __and facts make slander taper. She challenges the mighty state __and withers down the bully. Its boss-eyed men retaliate __but don’t recover fully. They smashed the paper’s print machines, __they smashed its databases, They splashed its sheets with lies’ latrines __but left egg on their faces. And though they wack her flesh and bone, __intimidate and thugger, Pretend they’re not the Party’s own, __the truth is known as other. It seems there’s little hope to bless __as Hong Kong’s hard time hardens. But there’s more strength than Bad Men guess __in Epoch Times’ fresh gardens. . . Damian Robin is a writer and editor living in the United Kingdom. NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets. The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary. 12 Responses Gail May 12, 2021 Nicely done. Reply Damian Robin May 12, 2021 Thanks Gail Reply Damian Robin May 12, 2021 Before we get a wise cracker (or not so wise, just noisy) commenting on the words in the link on-the-beating-up-of-sarah-liang-by-damian-robin I can reassure everyone that I did not beat up Sarah Liang. Thank you. :^) Reply Mike Bryant May 12, 2021 I’m glad you cleared that up. 😉 Reply Damian Robin May 22, 2021 Thank you for clearing up so many messes on the SCP site, Mike. O mender of the mis-spilt pen, you fine and whole deleter, We need your clipped skills now and then to make our script stores neater. Go, bro. Mike Bryant May 22, 2021 Thanks, Damian! Margaret Coats May 12, 2021 A masterful, fighting poem, Damian, beautifully composed so quickly after the event it deals with. Your first stanza made me think of the simple “May-mess, like on orchard boughs” from a sonnet entitled, “The Starlight Night,” by Victorian writer Gerard Manley Hopkins. The garden imagery re-applied to the free press in the final stanza, after the intervening description of events, is stronger and still more effective. Reply Damian Robin May 22, 2021 Thanks for the helpful comments, Margaret. Good therapy for performance anxiety — as I make a performance of too many things :^) I read a lot of Hopkins as a teen and into twenties — a good side of my schooling as it was there I was introduced — on the Eng Lit Exam syllabus, I think. And I went on to read further, though not “The Starry Night”. He seems less successful with this than the nature-centered / earthy observational poems that get to the thing-ness of things. Maybe, having less concrete knowledge of the atmos-stratos-cosmos-sphere than of direct experience with God-outdoors, he was unable to grasp the grandeur and made do with airy, eery concepts. Thanks for the re-introduction, O Educator of homees [another smiley face space here ]. Hope you got the en-crypt-ion on my last comment on your sublime, sibylline, sybilian, civilian poem being predictably good — as it was, doubtlessly, foretold in unread prophecy in the book of time (if you get my drift). [ space place for thumbs up here ] Reply Susan Jarvis Bryant May 12, 2021 Damian, this heart-rending poem shouts out for those who go unheard and I applaud you, not only for your accomplished poetry, but for your bold heart and sense of justice. Thank you!! Reply Damian Robin May 22, 2021 Cheers, Susan. You are a boon to this site with your encouragement and good words in prose and poems … There is much awkwardness in HK — more so now as Falun Gong practitioners and supporters are getting the CCP ‘bad movement / anti-China divisives’ treatment. FG has been a solid beacon for righteous action in HK, showing a measured, pragmatic, spiritual and a-political approach to living in HK. Yet, the main CCP-sponsered paper there has recently called for the banning of Falun Gong in Hong Kong. You will no doubt know this, having won a prominent place in the 2021 FOFG Poetry Contest https://classicalpoets.org/2021/05/13/winners-of-the-friends-of-falun-gong-poetry-contest-announced/ and https://fofg.org/competitions/2021-poetry/ Keep on strengthening the Truth, Susan. Reply Elizabeth May 13, 2021 A beautiful piece of writing. I wish the world could see and hear the beauty of poems like yours Damian! Reply Damian Robin May 22, 2021 Thanks, Elizabeth. I am glad you support the content of this website with your magnanimous words. Comments like these help us all — Keep ’em coming when they are appropriate! Reply Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Damian Robin May 12, 2021 Before we get a wise cracker (or not so wise, just noisy) commenting on the words in the link on-the-beating-up-of-sarah-liang-by-damian-robin I can reassure everyone that I did not beat up Sarah Liang. Thank you. :^) Reply
Damian Robin May 22, 2021 Thank you for clearing up so many messes on the SCP site, Mike. O mender of the mis-spilt pen, you fine and whole deleter, We need your clipped skills now and then to make our script stores neater. Go, bro.
Margaret Coats May 12, 2021 A masterful, fighting poem, Damian, beautifully composed so quickly after the event it deals with. Your first stanza made me think of the simple “May-mess, like on orchard boughs” from a sonnet entitled, “The Starlight Night,” by Victorian writer Gerard Manley Hopkins. The garden imagery re-applied to the free press in the final stanza, after the intervening description of events, is stronger and still more effective. Reply
Damian Robin May 22, 2021 Thanks for the helpful comments, Margaret. Good therapy for performance anxiety — as I make a performance of too many things :^) I read a lot of Hopkins as a teen and into twenties — a good side of my schooling as it was there I was introduced — on the Eng Lit Exam syllabus, I think. And I went on to read further, though not “The Starry Night”. He seems less successful with this than the nature-centered / earthy observational poems that get to the thing-ness of things. Maybe, having less concrete knowledge of the atmos-stratos-cosmos-sphere than of direct experience with God-outdoors, he was unable to grasp the grandeur and made do with airy, eery concepts. Thanks for the re-introduction, O Educator of homees [another smiley face space here ]. Hope you got the en-crypt-ion on my last comment on your sublime, sibylline, sybilian, civilian poem being predictably good — as it was, doubtlessly, foretold in unread prophecy in the book of time (if you get my drift). [ space place for thumbs up here ] Reply
Susan Jarvis Bryant May 12, 2021 Damian, this heart-rending poem shouts out for those who go unheard and I applaud you, not only for your accomplished poetry, but for your bold heart and sense of justice. Thank you!! Reply
Damian Robin May 22, 2021 Cheers, Susan. You are a boon to this site with your encouragement and good words in prose and poems … There is much awkwardness in HK — more so now as Falun Gong practitioners and supporters are getting the CCP ‘bad movement / anti-China divisives’ treatment. FG has been a solid beacon for righteous action in HK, showing a measured, pragmatic, spiritual and a-political approach to living in HK. Yet, the main CCP-sponsered paper there has recently called for the banning of Falun Gong in Hong Kong. You will no doubt know this, having won a prominent place in the 2021 FOFG Poetry Contest https://classicalpoets.org/2021/05/13/winners-of-the-friends-of-falun-gong-poetry-contest-announced/ and https://fofg.org/competitions/2021-poetry/ Keep on strengthening the Truth, Susan. Reply
Elizabeth May 13, 2021 A beautiful piece of writing. I wish the world could see and hear the beauty of poems like yours Damian! Reply
Damian Robin May 22, 2021 Thanks, Elizabeth. I am glad you support the content of this website with your magnanimous words. Comments like these help us all — Keep ’em coming when they are appropriate! Reply
