Joanna, April 2009
Joanna was my colleague in the English Department at CUHK from the late 90s. She was one of the most knowledgeable linguistics scholars we've had. She was popular among students and spent much time helping them out with dramas, debates, and other activities on and off campus. Generous to a fault, she was helpful to friends in need and to domestic helpers. (Her home served as a "safe house" for helpers between jobs.) A devoted Catholic, she sang in the choir at a church in Shatin, the only Gwailo among a bevy of Filipinas.
Joanna is fun to be around. A group of colleagues (Louise Ho, Lisa Wong, Benzi Zhang, Mimi Ching, Joanna, and I) would meet regularly for lunch at Shaw Colleges noodle cafe, calling ourselves the "Noodle Club". At these lunches, Louise and Joanna would compose short poems. On birthdays, we would drive to Sai Kung for a leisurely lunch at Jaspas. Joanna always brought me sugar-free delicacies.
Born in Poland and brought up in Britain, Joanna has close ties to the US as well. She now teaches at the Macau Polytechnic, and owns flats in both Macau and Discovery Bay.
Here are two of Joanna's poems composed on previous visits to my home:
"Birdwatching"
In January on the rooftop I admire
Nature's engineering.
The Norfolk pine is a tower
Of green fronds.
Bauhinia in full bloom -
Pink marvel.
Behold the bee's precision
At altitude
Zooming in on sweet targets.
And there's a nameless bird
Like a flying flower,
Its chest of gaudy pink
Crest like the greenest leaf,
And curved beak
Like a bee's proboscis.
Espied, it eyes me
One glorious dreamy moment,
Then darted to the sky
Like an angel.
(January 15, 2005)
"A view of Clover Lodge from the abandoned pier"
The shadows on the water
Are like monk's hoods.
This evening, there are no
Mudskippers.
The whelks lie concealed.
Mysteriously overhead
Like a stealth bomber
Glides an Atlas moth
On wing's like Cyclop's eye.
My vision
Unimpaired
Deciphers the monochrome
Of dusk.
Ripples on the water
Pattern in the moonlight.
In the distance, the collage
Of Clover Lodge
Pine's arrow
Mountaintop
And velvet gray
Sky.
(January 17, 2005)
Joanna looks great! Never knew she would ever write poems...cause I could vividly recall her talking about Noam Chomsky and Transformational Generative Grammar in our class almost a decade ago...I miss her...
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