TENTH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE: A Tribute to Guest Editors
Hilary Tham
From the Editor:
Hilary Tham guest edited an issue in 2002, highlighting five poets who not only write beautifully, but are also known for their service to other area writers. Anyone who knew Hilary would not be surprised by this choice: she was dedicated to service herself, as a teacher and an editor. When she died of cancer three years after guest editing her issue, we all suffered a tremendous loss. Hilary was a featured author in the Winter 2001 issue, and contributed a poem to the Whitman Issue. She was also included posthumously in two additional issues of the journal: the DC Places and the Audio Issue. Many thanks to Hilary's husband, Joe Goldberg, and her daughters Ilana, Shoshana, and Rebecca, for their continuing support of Beltway Poetry, and permission to reprint her poems. Hilary's model continues to inspire me. I miss her terribly.
ARMCHAIR
A chair is not simply a chair,
An accessory for a house—
Taken for granted until not there
somewhat like a spouse.
An accessory for a house—
Fine teak, leather or rattan weave.
Somewhat like a spouse,
First impressions can deceive.
Fine teak, leather or rattan weave
With strong back and firm arms.
First impressions can deceive.
Time will test all charms
With strong back and firm arms.
Love can die and complicate
Time, will test all charms.
An empty chair calling for a mate.
Love can die and complicate
Coping with the loss of a spouse.
An empty chair calling for a mate—
Memory tightens its grip in an empty house.
Coping with the loss of a spouse
Taken for granted until not there.
Memory tightens its grip in an empty house...
A chair is not simply a chair.
MAY MEANS BEAUTIFUL IN CHINESE
We name daughters
Yee May, Soo May, Yin May, May May
May Wan, May Choo, May Li, as if
Beauty is the main imperative
for a woman, as if the naming
will make it fact. We load a diversity
of hopes on sons: Ying for courage,
Ming for brilliance, Fook for fortune,
Tai for greatness, and for honor
and endurance, Chong Yan.
Only when bad luck demons pester
a son with sickness and accidents do
we hide his maleness, call him Cat
or Dog. Ah Mow and Ah Gow are common
lifesaving names. If this ploy fails,
there's one sure way to turn away a demon:
disguise your son's value behind a girl's
name, call him Beautiful.
Hilary Tham (1946-2005) is the author of nine books of poetry (including Counting, The Tao of Mrs. Wei, and Bad Names for Women), a collection of short fiction (Tin Mines and Concubines), and a memoir (Lane With No Name). She was born in Klang, Malaysia; after her marriage in 1971, she immigrated to the US, where she converted to Judaism, and raised three daughters. She was Editor-in-Chief for The Word Works, Poetry Editor for the Potomac Review, and taught extensively as a visiting writer in schools throughout Virginia.
Published in Volume 11, Number 1, Winter 2010.
Read more by this author:
Hilary Tham
Hilary Tham: Whitman Issue
Tham's Intro to Vol. 3, No. 4 (Fall 2002)
Hilary Tham: DC Places Issue
Hilary Tham: Audio Issue
