In A Poetry Workshop
By John Zheng

Furniture covered with white sheets

is like the dead wrapped in shrouds,

denying the eyes for a visual touch—

a way to know whether it is made of

hardwood with durable joinery

or just cheap particle board

with wood chips glued together,

whether its grain will warm up

the atmosphere of the house.

This is abstraction in writing.

Go in fear of it. Use white sheets

as canvas for meaningful images.

Jianqing Zheng’s recent poetry collections include Dreaminations and Visual Chords. He’s a professor of English at a rural university where he edits the Journal of Ethnic American Literature. He has received three poetry fellowships from the Mississippi Arts Commission