Victoria’s Chang’s 'Passage' into Wonder

[from] The Trees Witness Everything by Victoria Chang, published by Copper Canyon Press, 2022.

Victoria’s Chang’s Passage into Wonder

I consider myself a poetry pilgrim. Every day, I seek poems, both new and familiar, to read and reread. My favorites are snapshots in my phone’s gallery, as dear to me as loved ones. Victoria Chang’s Passage is one of them.

This surprisingly short poem is a portal into the mystical. Think of how she starts: a falling leaf that “never stops falling.” Immediately, we're ushered into a suspended moment, which the Greeks called Kairos, or “deep time.”  Naomi Matlow, in her essay, More Kairos, Less Chronos (Live More, Work Less) describes Kairos as occurring when “A state of flow is activated, and it cannot be measured but only experienced.”

Yes. This drifting dream space, one without time, is familiar to many of us. Whether witnessing a flock of geese, playing tennis, visiting a museum—we can flow with life’s unifying current, one that defies explanation.

To Chang, a perpetually falling leaf is a feeling, a search for a place, whatever, wherever that may be. Essentially, she describes longing. My poetry quest is my search for connection, meaning, a moment of rapture.

A leaf may land anywhere: “someone’s hair, a park bench, a finger”—just as we may. The intricacies of life are subtle and mysterious. Are we awake to them?

On a side note, in this essay, I found myself writing Chang as Change, which may be serendipity. For I consider our moments of awareness as moments of transformation; times when we move out of our stories, moods, problems into another potential we hadn’t yet realized.

I love how Passage ends with a question. Departures are beginnings, and Chang’s close acts as an opening as well, an invitation. Not into her world, but into a wider realm of possibility, as if she’s pointing to a sunrise, one we’d otherwise miss.

About The Author

Jennifer Mills Kerr is an educator, poet, and writer who loves mild winters, anything Jane Austen, and the raucous coast of Northern California. She leads virtual poetry writing workshops that inspire artistic growth & community. After twenty years publishing fiction, Jennifer has recently “come out” as a poet, thanks to supportive editors, teachers, and friends. Connect with Jennifer through her Substack, Poetry Inspired, or say hello at www.JenniferMillsKerr.com.