Remembering Foua Hang

My longtime friend and fellow activist Foua Hang passed away on May 26th, 2007.

There are others who can speak more extensively, more eloquently about the impact Foua made in the community and in the lives of her family and friends, but I will say that I'm left deeply saddened to lose a peer of her caliber.

She remained true to her convictions and was a positive figure in progressive causes who possessed a frank, lively honesty all too rare in our jaded times. Thank you so much for everything you taught me, my friend. There will never be another like you.

Incandescence

What passes from the earth? Everything living.
What remains? Ordinary days

Punctuated by the rising of the sun,
the waking of souls, the roots of nightfall.

Some, we'll witness together.
Some, separated by miles, the flux of atoms, the quirks of perspective.

All lives are brief among mountains, among constellations
Who hang a million light years away.

But even the briefest life of a Hmong woman
Born among our secret wars and uncertain futures

Can spark transformations
As meaningful as the first smile of a child,
The last story of an elder who never lost hope,
Or the bright thread between friends saying goodbye.