Last September, when Literary Death Match swung through Beijing, I performed a poem called Things That Taste Like Purple about the devilry of baijiu, a.k.a. sorghum liquor (dust of the attic, wine of the gutter… with a long finish into the fetor of fragrance). Unbeknownst to me, one of my friends in the audience, the artistic and talented Amy Sands, would go on to create a series of watercolors to accompany my words. The video, which she shot, I post here with deepest gratitude and humility.
UPDATE: You can now read the poem over at Kartika Review.
“…the opening of Symphonie Espagnole…”
If you enjoyed this, I highly recommend checking out the collaboration between former US poet laureate Billy Collins and JWT-NY, which hired animators to illustrate such poems as The Dead, Forgetfulness, and Now and Then (which has a China theme, for what it’s worth).
