GotGothKitty

Poetry & Writing


sample image

The Vision

In my room, Kuan Yin guards my bed.

Goddess of Unmarried Women.

Goddess of Fertility.

Goddess of Mercy.

She stands on a throne of gold-tipped lotus,

holding a white horsetail duster

and metal rings to encircle

the heads of the disobedient.

Her black hair flows over her white veils,

and she smiles to me as her pink lotus flies

across the sky. Sometimes she carries

an infant in her arms,

but Kuan Yin is not the Virgin Mary.

The child she carries is not her own.

I have prayed to her since I was a child

before I knew what prayer meant,

when daily my mother slapped

the bamboo stick across my arms and legs,

and my prayers became the bridge across the pain.

My grandmother tells me to release my childhood,

remember only that Kuan Yin plucked me off

the wobbly junk of a boat gypsy

and flew me to her,

dark orphan, my skin rashed and peeling.

Today, walking through the streets of Chinatown

I buy images of her.

Sometimes pewter, sometimes bargain jade,

these small comforts

I collect like tokens

to buy my way across.


                                                                                        Priscilla Lee

A few of my Kwan Yin figures.


1940's Famille Rose Kwan Yin with Shancai from Tai Yick


1940's Mille Fleur Kwan Yin from The Salvation Army


Republic Famille Rose Kwan Yin from Tai Yick


1970's Mille Fleur Kwan Yin through eBay


1950's small Famille Rose Kwan Yin from Tai Yick


1970's small clay Kwan Yin from Goodwill in South San Francisco


Mille Fleur Kwan Yin from the Goodwill on Clement in San Francisco


Kutani Kannon through Etsy


Large floral Kwan Yin from Tai Yick


Famille Rose red-robed Kwan Yin from Tai Yick


Large 1950-60's white-robed Kwan Yin from Tai Yick


Assorted Kwan Yin's from eBay, etsy, and thrift stores



Kwan Yin collection

Click this link for information about Kuan Yin from Wikipedia