What makes poetry? How does it work? Why do we hang onto poetry as if hanging onto life? Why does a poem make us feel alive, awakened, delighted, transformed? Where does a poem stand in the bitter sea of life, in the grime of language? How does it lift us out of the mud and let us shine like a diamond? How does it transport us into another world, another planet, another star at the speed of light? How does it allow us to wander and marvel like a child? How does it entangle our mind, our brain, our destiny with the flow of the cosmos? How does it make us large, open the world of multitude, as Whitman promised?                           

Illumination of Poetry: Meditations from East & West, ed. by Wang Ping and Paul Hoover, will touch all the questions above and beyond, with illuminating essays, thoughts, poems and art from Zhuangzi, Laozi, Tao Yuanming, Hanshan, Lu Ji, Walt Whitman, Nietzscher, Walter Benjamin, William Blake, Goya, Ezra Pound, Gary Snyder and many others, taking poetry lovers and makers on endless treasure hunt

Illuminations of Poetry

The Inspiring Life of King Salmon

It's time for King Salmon to go home, to complete his life cycle, at any cost. His story teaches us how to live, hope and love till the last breath. Powerful lyrics by Poet Wang Ping, and beautiful illustrations by Eric Afuso.

• When geese fly north, honking in the high sky,

• and the ocean currents tug at our pulses,

• When the wind starts blowing, pushing,

• pushing us away from Alaska,

• a voice whispers in our hearts:

• “Home, time to go home.

• Three years, you’ve roamed the deep sea.

• Now you’ve grown, it’s time to return, to go home.”

  Forthcoming from Kin诗ship Poetry Press fall, 2026.

Let each poem illuminates our soul 诗 Let each book leads to our inner child

Kin诗ship Poetry Press fills my heart with joy! Their poetry inspires me to dance and create, awakening a deep sense of hope and courage within.

Rose

★★★★★