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The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father QUOTES

The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father QUOTES

1 " I want you to be better than me.
Xue looked at our father.
Xue said, What if you are the best man I know how to be? "

― Kao Kalia Yang , The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father

2 " On the planes, we leaned our heads back against the tall headrests, closed our eyes to what we had known, and imagined futures for our children - not for ourselves, because we knew that we were too old to start anew and filled with too much sorrow, too many regrets. "

― Kao Kalia Yang , The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father

3 " I've not heard the world the way you do for a long time now. "

― Kao Kalia Yang , The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father

4 " Your trust in me then and now scares and reassures me. "

― Kao Kalia Yang , The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father

5 " Our baby was laid on the cool metal, on his side, six inches long, eyes closed, mouth open slightly, thin arms and legs, little red fingers and toes. You looked without blinking. I wanted to put my hands over your eyes, to block what you were seeing, to stop the gasps that you expelled. "

― Kao Kalia Yang , The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father

6 " Song said, 'Bee, there is no wrong time for love to flourish. Perhaps now, when so many men and women have learned to hate and fear, is the most perfect time of all, fo reach of us to be reminded of a lesson in love. "

― Kao Kalia Yang , The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father

7 " I am sorry, dear heart, that I have more sorrows than joy.
I am sorry I made you scale mountains, heedless of your soft skin.
I am sorry I made you jump into rushing water, heedless of your inability to swim.
I am sorry, dear heart, that you must bear the scars.
Dear heart, that you remember . . .
The day my older brother told me to run.
In my flight away from home, I heard the shotguns blast.
In my dreams, people found my brother, and they took him to the hospital in Sam Neua. In my dreams, the wild dogs entered our house, and feasted on my brother's fallen body.
I am sorry, dear heart, that I wish to begin again,
My tender, my wounded heart,
Begin again before the mountains and the water, before the sorrows, when I knew joy at my brother's side. "

― Kao Kalia Yang , The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father

8 " In America, my voice is only powerful within our home. The moment i exit our front door and enter the paved streets, my deep voice loses its volume and its strength. When I speak English, I become like a leaf in the wind "

― Kao Kalia Yang , The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father

9 " My father did not live to see his son yearn for a father, or struggle to become one. "

― Kao Kalia Yang , The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father

10 " My children wanted me to be brave. They did not understand that I have been running from the nightmare of what happened in Laos since I left. Or that there were things waiting for me in Thailand, little boys and lost dogs, that I knew I could never return to. They did not understand that the bravery they asked of me I never had in Laos or Thailand, and I could not have it on returning to those countries. "

― Kao Kalia Yang , The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father