The Qingming Festival, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day, is a time when families of Chinese ancestry visit the tombs of their ancestors. It falls on the 15th day after the Spring Equinox, and it is commemorated by ritual offerings to departed loved ones. This may include food or the burning of joss sticks and joss paper.
B.C. poet Cathy Xinman has written “To Write to Forget” about her father. Pancouver has published it beneath her picture (below) to coincide with the Qingming Festival because this poem speaks of the powerful grief that she experienced over losing him.
Xinman writes poems in English and Chinese, as well as screenplays. She was honoured with a golden statuette at the San Francisco International New Concept Film Festival in 2023, as well as the Remi Bronze Award for Dramatic Film Screenplay at the Houston International Film Festival in 2024.
To Write to Forget
Father, there is no poem for you,
No dream for you.
In the rain of the earth,
In the wind of the sea,
Pain surges in the raging tides.
Tears have no end.
Loneliness has no name.
A cruel sword imprisons me.
I dare not speak the truth of escape.
Time moves swiftly past, merciless and unkind.
I am forced to forget you,
Cut off from your presence.
Ambitious sky,
You stripped him of his waiting.
Heart of the wanderer,
Forced to accept the sky’s cover.
The sun can’t be recognized.
Night can’t be changed.
Dreams can’t deceive.
I write a poem every day to dedicate to the world,
But I can’t dedicate one to you.
This poem ends here.
I write it
To forget.
