by Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé
This wasn’t a statement of nuance, not more hubris, but a no-nonsense-straight-up-and-ruled-narrow categorical utterance. From The Observatory on the outpost in the deep south of The Weatherlies. The Observatory was an ode to the past, a square-patch abode that looked and felt like Thoreau’s hideout, its henna-colored myth now a fading mental picture, its cabin more conspicuous in the winter when the trees had shed their leaves, and its boxy profile cut through the evergreens, the spare forest of vertical lines. It was the snow that Resident 97 missed, the way it seemed to fall from somewhere no one could see, for no reason other than to turn everything into a duvet of wan waves, Walden Pond like the soft curves in one’s palm, the sun line on it running in an opposite spray from below the ring finger, to still variegate, out into the other six webbed appendages, following unseen capillaries.
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ABOUT THE POET ~
Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé has edited more than ten books and co-produced three audio books. The titles span the genres of ethnography, journalism, creative nonfiction, and poetry, several edited pro bono for non-profit organizations including Sok Sabay Cambodia, Riding for the Disabled Association, and the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre. Previously an entertainment and lifestyle journalist, Desmond has traveled to Australia, France, Hong Kong and Spain for his stories, culminating in the authorship of the limited edition Top Ten TCS Stars for Caldecott Publishing. Trained in book publishing at Stanford University, with a theology masters (world religions) from Harvard University and fine arts masters (creative writing) from the University of Notre Dame, he is the recipient of the Hiew Siew Nam Academic Award, and Singapore Internationale Grant, with his poetry and fiction appearing in nine chapbooks, various anthologies, and over 140 literary journals. An interdisciplinary artist, Desmond also works in clay, his ceramic works housed in museums and private collections in India, the Netherlands, the UK and the US.
Last updated May 31, 2011