Poetry – Nellie Wong

Nellie’s 91st Birthday

By hoisanpoet | September 12, 2025September 12, 2025 by hoisanpoet

Celebrating Nellie’s 91st birthday! #poetryblooms Ode to the big knife Ai aw in Hoisan-waBig blue scheme the slant and the sheenChopping in rhythm’s precisionDelivering lobster by hand shaped as its original formEloquent in chef’s handFeast for eyes and soulGargantuan yet minusculeHigh how high the culinary artsJust practice more practice, noKneeling but kowtowing of sortsLove for beauty of cadence’s song itsMarinade and dance andNo nullification becauseOperatives of beauteous realmPurity of practice thrums and humsQuintuplet of spirit…

National Poetry Month at SFPL: ”When Cherry Blossoms Fall”

By hoisanpoet | April 19, 2025May 5, 2025 by hoisanpoet

Reading by Genny Lim & Nellie Wong, with Hyeyung Sol Yoon Weds., April 19, 2025, 2pm – 3:30pmLatino/Hispanic Meeting RoomMain Library, 100 Larkin Street San Francisco, CA 94102 SFPL’s Humanities Center celebrates National Poetry Month with a reading by Genny Lim, San Francisco’s 9th Poet Laureate. Cherry blossoms have long been a symbol of life’s brevity. Lim, together with poet Nellie Wong, will address themes of life, death and renewal in the historical and personal…

Poetry Work

Do It Every Morning

By hoisanpoet | April 3, 2025April 3, 2025 by hoisanpoet

poem nine / Nellie Wong at Ninety NELLIE WONG celebrates her ninetieth birthday with the publication of Nothing Like Freedom, her fifth collection, after Dreams of Harrison Railroad Park (1977), Death of Long Steam Lady (1986), Stolen Moments (1997), and Breakfast Lunch Dinner (2012). “Nellie Wong at Ninety” is a digital companion project centered around nine poems, chosen by Nellie to represent each decade of her storied life.

Activism Poetry Work

Fourteen-Line Poem on The World

By hoisanpoet | March 30, 2025January 3, 2025 by hoisanpoet

poem eight / Nellie Wong at Ninety NELLIE WONG celebrates her ninetieth birthday with the publication of Nothing Like Freedom, her fifth collection, after Dreams of Harrison Railroad Park (1977), Death of Long Steam Lady (1986), Stolen Moments (1997), and Breakfast Lunch Dinner (2012). “Nellie Wong at Ninety” is a digital companion project centered around nine poems, chosen by Nellie to represent each decade of her storied life.

Poetry Work

America in the Fillmore

By hoisanpoet | March 12, 2025September 12, 2025 by hoisanpoet

poem seven / Nellie Wong at Ninety NELLIE WONG celebrates her ninetieth birthday with the publication of Nothing Like Freedom, her fifth collection, after Dreams of Harrison Railroad Park (1977), Death of Long Steam Lady (1986), Stolen Moments (1997), and Breakfast Lunch Dinner (2012). “Nellie Wong at Ninety” is a digital companion project centered around nine poems, chosen by Nellie to represent each decade of her storied life. Oakland Tribune, “Chinese-American women seek to unbind…

Poetry Work

Farewell My Dragonfly

By hoisanpoet | February 12, 2025September 12, 2025 by hoisanpoet

poem six / Nellie Wong at Ninety NELLIE WONG celebrates her ninetieth birthday with the publication of Nothing Like Freedom, her fifth collection, after Dreams of Harrison Railroad Park (1977), Death of Long Steam Lady (1986), Stolen Moments (1997), and Breakfast Lunch Dinner (2012). “Nellie Wong at Ninety” is a digital companion project centered around nine poems, chosen by Nellie to represent each decade of her storied life. Nellie’s poem, Oh Worrywort, published in IKON…

Activism Poetry Work

Art

By hoisanpoet | January 12, 2025September 12, 2025 by hoisanpoet

poem five / Nellie Wong at Ninety NELLIE WONG celebrates her ninetieth birthday with the publication of Nothing Like Freedom, her fifth collection, after Dreams of Harrison Railroad Park (1977), Death of Long Steam Lady (1986), Stolen Moments (1997), and Breakfast Lunch Dinner (2012). “Nellie Wong at Ninety” is a digital companion project centered around nine poems, chosen by Nellie to represent each decade of her storied life. After Del Sol Quartet’s Angel Island concert…

Feminism Poetry The Memory Palace Work

No Luck in This Equation

By hoisanpoet | December 12, 2024April 24, 2025 by hoisanpoet

poem four / Nellie Wong at Ninety NELLIE WONG celebrates her ninetieth birthday with the publication of Nothing Like Freedom, her fifth collection, after Dreams of Harrison Railroad Park (1977), Death of Long Steam Lady (1986), Stolen Moments (1997), and Breakfast Lunch Dinner (2012). “Nellie Wong at Ninety” is a digital companion project centered around nine poems, chosen by Nellie to represent each decade of her storied life. “A world without ghosts,” Hung Liu tells…

Poetry Recording The Memory Palace Work

I do not hate a poet

By hoisanpoet | November 14, 2024January 3, 2025 by hoisanpoet

poem three / Nellie Wong at Ninety NELLIE WONG celebrates her ninetieth birthday with the publication of Nothing Like Freedom, her fifth collection, after Dreams of Harrison Railroad Park (1977), Death of Long Steam Lady (1986), Stolen Moments (1997), and Breakfast Lunch Dinner (2012). “Nellie Wong at Ninety” is a digital companion project centered around nine poems, chosen by Nellie to represent each decade of her storied life. Nellie shares a memory about the dress…

Poetry The Memory Palace Work

Not Once

By hoisanpoet | October 25, 2024December 8, 2024 by hoisanpoet

poem two / Nellie Wong at Ninety NELLIE WONG celebrates her ninetieth birthday with the publication of Nothing Like Freedom, her fifth collection, after Dreams of Harrison Railroad Park (1977), Death of Long Steam Lady (1986), Stolen Moments (1997), and Breakfast Lunch Dinner (2012). “Nellie Wong at Ninety” is a digital companion project centered around nine poems, chosen by Nellie to represent each decade of her storied life. Poet Nellie Wong poses on Harrison Street…