Crossing the Sea

Don Precosky teaches English at the College of New Caledonia and is the
co-editor of Four Realities: Poets of Northern B.C.

DuoDuo has lived in exile from his native China since 1989. Just as his
life is divided into the periods before and after his departure, so too
is this book, but reversing the order of his experience, starting with
“Poems in Exile” followed by “Poems in China.”

In general, the poems are short and impressionistic. Some tend toward
surrealism. Not surprisingly, the poems in exile stress loss,
loneliness, and emptiness. In “Often,” an unidentified Western city
is described as the haunt of lost, alienated people who long for other
times and other places: “They were lovers, wives, mothers. / They
still are, / But no one wants to remember them. Even / The pillows they
shared with others / Forget them.”

The “Poems in China” pieces are not as clearly communicated as the
“Poems in Exile.” They make greater use of guardedness and
indirection (they were, after all, subject to official scrutiny), and
often use Communist Party buzzwords, ironically, against the powers that
be. In “Auspicious Day,” for example, the poet uses references to
sacrifice, struggle, and a “resound[ing] ... bugle”—all Maoist
code words—to valorize the silent resistance of ordinary people to the
oppression of the Party.

The dominant mood of Crossing the Sea is one of incredible sadness.
Life in exile is almost unbearable; life at home is unbearable.