Long Pavilion, Short Pavilion

Long Pavilion, Short Pavilion: Selected Poems from Cao Xu's Blog

This poetry collection features selections from the author's works published on his blog over many years, and also includes a number of insightful comments, allowing readers to more deeply understand the emotions and wisdom behind the poems.

Cao Xu's poetry flows like a free current of water-unrestrained, following no course but its own heart, elusive and impossible to capture. Through poetry, he seeks to gather those "sheep" scattered along the crossroads of time and emotion-those fleeting thoughts and fragments that have drifted away with the wind and cannot be retrieved. Poetry becomes his way of dreaming and of returning home, infusing the mist and waterscapes of Jiangnan between the lines, nourishing the inspiration deeply rooted in his life. Through his verses, Cao Xu dialogues with nature, feeling the whispers of flowers and plants, the rhythms of insects, and in doing so, pours out his deep affection for family, for life, and for poetry itself.

He has spent a lifetime reading poetry, teaching poetry, and writing about poetry, using verse to record the traces of history and of life. For him, poetry is not merely a mode of expression, but a testament to existence and a mark of being. This collection is the echo of his dialogue with the world, with time, and with history-precisely locating his place in this world through the art of poetry.

《長亭‧短亭》──曹旭博客詩選，這本詩集精選自作者多年來發表於博客的作品，並特別收錄了部分精彩評論，讓讀者更深入地理解詩歌背後的情感與智慧。

曹旭的詩，就如一泓自由流淌的水，無拘無束，隨心所至，難以捕捉。他以詩歌為載體，去追尋那一群散落在時間與情感歧路上的「羊」--那些隨風而逝、難以復返的心緒與片段。詩歌成為他幻想與還鄉的方式，將江南的煙雲水氣灌注於字裡行間，滋養著他深植於生活的靈感。透過詩，曹旭與自然對話，感受花草的細語、蟲豸的律動，並以此來傾訴對親人、生活、詩歌的深情。

他的一生讀詩、教詩、論詩，用詩記錄歷史與生命的軌跡。詩歌於他而言，不僅是一種表達方式，更是一種生命的證明與存在的印記。這本詩集是他與世界、與時光、與歷史對話的回聲，將他在這個世界上的位置，用詩精準地定位。