Poem of the Week

Ha Jin is the author of numerous novels, including Waiting, winner of both a National Book Award and a PEN/Faulkner; War Trash, recipient of a second PEN/Faulkner; and A Song Everlasting (Pantheon, 2021). He is also the author of four story collections, including Under the Flag, which was awarded a Flannery O’Connor prize. His several poetry collections include Facing Shadows and Distant Center. Ha Jin left his native China in 1985 to attend Brandeis University and is director of BU’s creative writing program. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2014.

Photograph by Dorothy Greco.

Acceptance

by Ha Jin

In many people’s eyes
absence is a fault or crime.
However hard you try to make amends,
they will still condemn you.
So you can’t go home anymore
and will drift on the wind of chance—
wherever you land
you will be an outsider.

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