Annie Bien

From Lhasa to Bomdila

I watch the newsreel of his procession,
the Dalai Lama going to examinations,
the parasol marker,
the golden silk palanquin,
the yak wearing brocade:
removing your glasses
you walk into the fog
of an unknown world
on horse, then foot,
in black and white,
without hearing an avalanche,
the mountains peaks
puncture sky.

 

Annie Bien has published Plateau Migration (Alabaster Leaves Press), received a seed commission from the Soho Theatre Company in London, and is a translator of Tibetan Buddhist texts for 84000.