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Poetry of Rebecca Fein

A Little Chinese Bowl

A reddish-brown earthenware little bowl

With white long Chinese letters painted on the front of it,

Looks somewhat like an elaborate, wide egg cup to me.

It is painted dark green.

Its greenness follows the shape of the bowl

And ends in a complete, open circle—

Ready to receive the world and especially that which it has room for.

Its base is about one-eighth inch wide,

And the outer curves become the base, or the curves grow out of the base.

It is an important object: small, graceful, perfect.

“In A Little Chinese Bowl, Miss Fein sees that quiet china bowl as having amazing adventures. The melodrama of the static is something to be found in her work.”

—Eli Siegel
From Preface to Personal & Impersonal

From Personal & Impersonal

© 1959 by Terrain Gallery

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