{"id":3815,"date":"2023-11-27T20:55:50","date_gmt":"2023-11-28T00:55:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/?page_id=3815"},"modified":"2023-11-27T20:55:50","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T00:55:50","slug":"life-in-the-mississippi-delta","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/poetry-archive\/life-in-the-mississippi-delta\/","title":{"rendered":"Life in the Mississippi Delta"},"content":{"rendered":"

Life in the Mississippi Delta<\/h2>\n

Jianqing Zheng<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a crossroads with stops and turns,
\na highway through cotton fields,
\nfishponds, or sleepy small towns,<\/p>\n

or a bumpy backroad which leads
\nto a blues marker that tells
\nabout B.B. King\u2019s birthplace,<\/p>\n

or to a barn where Emmett Till
\nwas beaten to death. Most often
\nit’s like throwing a tiny rock<\/p>\n

into a stagnant bayou covered
\nwith green scum or gazing
\nat the star-studded sky.<\/p>\n

It’s the flatland showing life as is,
\nslow with no sharp brakes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jianqing Zheng<\/strong> is the author of\u00a0<\/span>The Dog Years of Reeducation<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u00a0(Madville Publishing, 2023),\u00a0<\/span>A Way of Looking<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u00a0(Silverfish Review Press, 2021),\u00a0<\/span>Enforced Rustication in the Chinese Cultural Revolution<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u00a0(Texas Review Press, 2019),\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>The Landscape of Mind<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u00a0(Slapering Hol Press, 2002). His edited books include\u00a0<\/span>Conversations with Dana Gioia<\/span><\/i><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>African American Haiku<\/span><\/i><\/a>,<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span>The Other World of Richard Wright<\/span><\/i><\/a>, and\u00a0<\/span>Sonia Sanchez\u2019s Poetic Spirit through Haiku<\/span><\/i><\/a>. He is a professor of English at Mississippi Valley State University\u00a0where he edits\u00a0<\/span>Valley Voices: A Literary Review<\/span><\/i>. Zheng\u2019s newest chapbook\u00a0<\/span>Just Looking: Haiku Sequences about the Mississippi Delta<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u00a0is available for download via\u00a0<\/span>Open: Journal of Arts and Literature<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Life in the Mississippi Delta Jianqing Zheng   It\u2019s a crossroads with stops and turns, a highway through cotton fields, fishponds, or sleepy small towns, or a bumpy backroad which Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6626,"featured_media":0,"parent":1261,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3815"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6626"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3815"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4337,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3815\/revisions\/4337"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}