I was revisiting Yeats’ A Vision, and I asked Lin to do some automatic writing. She did this in the mornings for about a week, and then talked me through the Chinese, and I wrote down what grabbed me. I carried this around in my back pocket for a week or so, tidying it whenever I had a chance.

   sea swimming

my husband was afraid
of where I come from
said it was the end of the world
and that we had to give our son
a life away from that white smoke
that black dragon snaking
through the yellow world
south of siberia
and it was his big idea
brought us here
and I am not someone
who hoped or dreamed of coming here
but I have learned to like it

we have no such green as this green
the locals think is common

I am happy here but still
after the boy and man have gone to bed
I treat myself to a costume drama about the Qing

and there was that day before I took our son
back to Heilongjiang to see my parents
the sea at Blackrock was still and clear
like nothing in this world and I couldn’t resist
the shock of the cold water made me laugh
when I went in for the first time, just me
and from down there so low
at the level of the sea
my face reflected among
cloud up behind me
magic white flowers round my head
eye to eye with Clare and Galway
spinning round me I felt
my own body become a bright pin twisting
into that pure and burning water
twisting into all this beauty
into all this good fortune
becoming a part of here
and I wanted to sing or shout
I am of Ireland and there at the shore
my husband and my boy were laughing
among everything around
in circles inside circles
bright sea stones yes all the world
laughing with us