Kingston, Maxine Hong 1999
Tuesday, May 18, 1999
This well-deep outpouring is not for
anything. Yet we have to put into exact words
what we are given to see, hear, know.
Mother’s eyesight blurred; she saw trash
as flowers. “Oh. How very beautiful.”
She was lucky, seeing beauty, living
in beauty, whether or not it was there.
– Maxine Hong Kingston, “I Love A Broad Margin To My Life”
Listen to Maxine Hong Kingston’s 1999 Poetry Center reading:
Watch Maxine Hong Kingston accept the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters:
Listen to an interview with Maxine Hong Kingston:
