This book is a collaborated labor of love by me and Debi Rivera, who is a registered nurse and a poet in her own right, specializing in Haiku. After my first poetry book "Dying," she suggested that I publish my second poetry book with English counterparts, and she later reviewed and improved my English translation. Her talented contribution is equally important for this Chinese/English bilingual poetry book that would entertain either of the language natives. This is an excellent value that we want to share with this diverse world.
![]()
Yet, like many have realized, publishing a poetry book is a huge challenge not only for poets but also for publishers today. The cold fact is, as all book experts would point out, there's simply no profitable market for poetry publications. There's hope, though. Poetry lovers always seek out poetry books of decent quality. We are confident that "Poems and Ballads from the House of Drifting Clouds" is one of them. But only with your loving support can we get there. Here's an example of our work -
FATHER’S MATHEMATICS
How old father grew
how child-like he became
How much more the wrinkles lengthened
how shorter the width of his stride
How much higher I became
how much weaker he grew
Depth diluted by life’s blood, sweat, and tears
leveled at the hairline in retreat
and crushed-out shoe bottoms
The remaining measurement
is to be the conversion of a loosened spine
and a great man’s solidity
父 的 數 學
父親老了多少
就小了多少
多了皺紋的長度
就少了腳步的寬度
加了我的高度
就減了他的強度
一輩子血汗淚滴穿的深度
打平在淪陷的髮際
以及榨乾的鞋底
剩餘的尺寸
用疏鬆的背脊換算
一個好漢的硬度
![]()
This campaign is humbly asking for $500 to cover two-thirds of the publishing, advertising, and distribution fees. Since it's a flexible goal fundraiser, it doesn't mean the campaign does not need to reach its goal. We need every dollar of $500 to put a decent book in your hands and you can appreciate it. If this fundraiser doesn't reach its goal, we will invest the funds out of our own pocket to fill up the gap. Our only intention is, again, to deliver a beautiful bilingual book to the diverse world we live in.
DeYoung managed to get funded for his previous poetry book "Dying" and his late father's three posthumous books respectively; "Strings of Life", "Dawn", "The 4th of Zhou Dye" so he knows about self-publishing and how to make it work. Teamed up with Debi, who always sees the big picture and shares her big heart with anyone, DeYoung's genuine efforts proven in the past can be only more trustworthy this time.
Even though we believe we can deliver our promise to our backers, we will intensively keep every backer and potential backers posted of any changes made to the execution of the campaign, so that everyone will be knowledgeable.
Some people just can't contribute, but that doesn't mean they can't help. You may as well do:
- Ask folks to get the word out and make some noise about this campaign.
- Remind them to use the Indiegogo share tools!
- Support this book's eBook version when it's available.