#kintsugi
Wǔxíng Category: Earth (土)
3-xx
An old traveler stands at the gate with a pack of stars,
A storyteller with a thousand myths to soften the stone.
He speaks of ancient kingdoms and the wisdom of his years,
Turning the heavy silence into a tapestry of clarity.
He does not flinch at the shadow or her sudden vexation,
Standing calm within the storm of her quiet resentment.
Not a parent to command, nor a stranger to the conflict,
But a partner who knows the path and lights the way.
He practices the ancient, silent art of Kintsugi,
A master of the healing craft learned across the wide seas.
He sees the cracks that others caused or chose to ignore,
Tracing the jagged lines with a touch of profound mercy.
He does not look past the scars but finds worth in the break,
Adding beauty and compassion for the sake of a weary soul.
He fills the hollow spaces with a wealth that cannot be sold,
Fusing her spirit with a love of refined gold,
Wiping the woe from her eyes to let her brilliance emerge.
The brush finds a new rhythm in the stillness of the night,
As he reveals the person standing beyond the present moment.
Profound talent and heart emerge from the forge of the past,
A character of rare beauty that was always meant to endure.
He sees the potential blooming like a lotus in the light,
Knowing the labor of the soul has only just started.
He offers gentle guidance with a dash of patient kindness,
Providing the quiet leeway for her spirit to find a home.
The seasoned spirit keeps his watch as a steady anchor,
A companion who marks the years by every wound and notch.
He uses the gold of his patience to mend what the world damaged,
Making the broken spirit even stronger than she was at the start.
He is the bedrock for the young dragon learning how to rise,
The steady earth beneath the mist as she claims the zenith.
He sees past the mask of the moment to the queen she is to be,
A woman of immense power, finally set and standing free,
Held in the light of an old soul who loves all he has seen.
刘嘉文
© 2026 Liujiawen2024. All Rights Reserved
Apr 9
Apr 9, 2026 at 9:37 AM UTC
It couldn't take long
—you and I knew it—
before I exploded.
You knew I wouldn't accept
the way they spoke
of you and me.
So I exploded.
My mind was torn apart
and millions of shards flew
as if I had been a
beautiful crystal.
You healed me,
you rebuilt me.
You took the shards
and you made a mosaic.
You said that my angry self
was lovely
and that my red cheeks
were cute.
I was destroyed
and you mocked the culprits—
by rebuilding me.
Mar 14
Mar 14, 2026 at 3:56 PM UTC
Kintsugi me in the traces lacquer mixed with gold,
A broken bowl dreams of the cracks only you hold
Fill a ragged edge in me illumine create in mistake
Our scandal beauty in the slipping swerving break
Fractured, many pieces, damaged beyond control,
Deep hollow sorrow disappointment fills our soul,
The breast of a line stops in shivers leaves in a sin,
Drop me on the floor shattered light shines within
Patient with me, still hands, tender reverent touch
Times leaks in all the vessels display me in a hutch
Lay me on the seams--our dreams applied w/care,
Paris again together with imperfections in the flair
Gleam our weeks forever immortal in a place onto
Break me in the spaces put back whole inside you.
Feb 25
Feb 25, 2026 at 7:47 AM UTC
Wǔxíng Category: Metal (金)
4-xx
The steel of the gaze is clear and sharp today,
tempered in the furnace of a distant year.
The old ruins are now a garden of stone,
where new vines climb the pillars of the past.
The clock no longer ticks a hollow sound,
but beats in time with the ocean’s steady pulse.
The ink of the old summons has turned to gold,
filling the fractures where the heart once broke.
I witness the strength of the spirit now,
this mended vessel with gold lines reinforcing the frame.
Those separate paths led me to the salt and tide,
to the moon princess who dictates my ocean’s pulse.
The pain of the old chasm did not define the man;
it was the hammer that forged the shield of love.
I am no longer a branch reaching for a lonely sun,
but a dragon guarding the treasure I have found,
finding my peace where the history meets the light.
The water breathes a light in the dark of night,
bioluminescence stirring in the shallow reach.
It mimics the sky in a perfect, liquid mirror,
holding the reflection of the moon’s soft grace.
The coiled power of the dragon is at rest,
watching the shoreline where the man now stands.
The scars are but accents on a vessel made whole,
shining brightly beneath the celestial queen’s gaze.
I stand in the glow of the salt and the stars,
offering a mended vessel to the doors of the deep.
You are the silver light that carves the iron of my heart,
the one who sees the gold and calls it beautiful.
I do not revisit the ghosts to feel the old cold,
but to acknowledge the fire that brought me to your side.
I am anchored by the light of the constellation,
humbled by the journey that led me to this shore,
forever whole in the grace of your sovereign love.
刘嘉文
© 2026 Liujiawen2024. All Rights Reserved.
Feb 10
Feb 10, 2026 at 11:48 AM UTC
Here's to the breakups sounding like
squeaky brake pads — loud enough
to warn you; too late to stop the damage.
From sharing white tees and hang-ups,
to both being stained by
leftover kisses.
My eyes like peeling wallpaper,
drywall soaked in tears —
Either cried too much
or held back for too long.
So I deleted you from my lockscreen
and lost contact with myself.
"New number, who’s this?"
You used to be the first contact
on top of my frequent list.
Now when you first contact,
it feels alien; first contact like UFO's.
Unidentified feelings.
I thought about ripping
the brake pads off, and driving
straight into a wall — higher than the ones
you drove me up against.
But you gave me the drive
to become better.
So thank you for the breakup.
It broke me, just enough
to rebuild with purpose.
Gold in the cracks.
Worth in the wounds.
This is my Kintsugi.
Jan 29
Jan 29, 2026 at 4:22 PM UTC
Look at you,
All of you!
Hard to hold,
But, I felt cold.
Dec 31, 2025
Dec 31, 2025 at 6:53 AM UTC
I feel fractured.
Fractured into a million pieces.
Like the mirror that was hit
Or the bowl that was dropped.
Now I kneel on the floor,
Staring at the pieces.
How do I fix it?
Can I fix it with gold?
Like the ancient art of kintsugi?
But what if I can’t find the gold?
What if I continue to kneel
In the fractured pieces of my soul.
The pieces that continue to cut deep.
Because I am fractured,
Fractured into a million pieces.
Aug 5, 2025
Aug 5, 2025 at 7:23 PM UTC
She opened her heart with
too much force.
She gripped it with fingers from both hands
ripping it apart
revealing
too many fragments of her soul.
They spilled out with
too much momentum and ended up
sprawled out
on the floor.
Will he notice the precious fractals of
her sweet spirit
crushed and broken on the ground?
Will he step over them?
On them?
Or sweep them under the rug?
Does he see the masterpiece that just
destroyed herself from being
too daring
too close to the edge?
She has
too little patience
to leave it up to him
what to do with the wreckage displayed.
She carefully picks up each piece
mindful of the sharp edges and new angels.
She borrows sap from her favorite Pine.
Blends it with gold dust powder
borrowed from ancestral strength
stored in her spine.
Applying this sturdy paste
she meticulously reconstructs
the segments of her discarded gift
into an alchemized transformation.
A Kinstsugi treasure with a new reservoir
inviting the love she has for herself
which can never be
too much.
Jul 18, 2025
Jul 18, 2025 at 2:59 PM UTC
I am not merely a mosaic,
But a complex tapestry of shards.
Each fragment tells a unique story,
Woven together with threads of love and scars,
Reflecting the myriad experiences that have shaped me.
Golden glue binds my fractures,
A testament to my relentless fight.
Through unwavering dedication and countless sacrifices,
I rise from shadows into the warm embrace of light,
Where hope ignites and dreams take flight.
In my cracks, my journey shines bright,
A map etched with the struggles I have faced.
Torment intertwines with resilience;
Wisdom emerges from hard-wrought lessons,
Each insight a precious gem in my heart’s treasure chest.
These golden seams narrate my tale with eloquence,
Boundaries drawn with meticulous care and intention.
I refuse to settle for treatment that belittles my worth;
I know I deserve far more than mere existence—
I am worthy of love that uplifts and nurtures my spirit.
I wear my history proudly like armor,
Each mark a badge of grace that speaks to my strength.
I am Kintsugi—a masterpiece in my own right,
An intricate creation forged in adversity’s fires,
Embracing every flaw as a vital part of my narrative.
With each step on this journey of self-discovery,
I stand tall and resolute, declaring to the world:
I deserve the love I freely give to others,
And a world that reflects kindness and compassion in return,
Where every heart shines with its unique beauty.
Nov 21, 2024
Nov 21, 2024 at 9:51 AM UTC
A porcelain doll
Shatters when she hits the floor
Only shards are left
So she mends herself again,
Again, again, and again.
Aug 1, 2024
Aug 1, 2024 at 9:30 PM UTC
birds alight upon
sutures of a licked-thin night—
tree branch at sunrise.
Sep 28, 2021
Sep 28, 2021 at 8:13 AM UTC
Our inner demons hide behind
The cracks that face forward
Seasoned by dungeons and darkness
They fill in the holes and cover up the crevices
Soon, my soul will be completely shattered
As your powerful glare becomes the last water drop
This ocean can take
And when the vessel of emotion breaks, it breaks
May 22, 2021
May 22, 2021 at 3:09 PM UTC
I am ready
to ring your rib
around my wrist
in triumph—
the faintest of relics
enliven me. My lips
still layered
as in the night you lost them.
I hope to hammer
your heart
& stuff its soil
in the sutures
of your skull;
I want to call that
the shadow to
kintsugi;
I want our memories never
to seep; to set
them up for decryption.
Unloving is a study—
consider an archaeologist’s
tentative hands
demystifying an artifact
once treasured for its secret
& leaving no spots
behind.
Apr 25, 2021
Apr 25, 2021 at 11:24 PM UTC
Broken into a million pieces,
living in this fear to break into a million more,
Making sure to tread with caution,
making sure I don't scream when I step on the thorns,
making sure I couldn't recall the last time I felt pain and mourned.
But someone felt my void inside,
Someone taught me there are no mistakes that cannot be healed
She taught me “healing exists to connect and not to perfect beings”.
I have found someone that makes me adore these fragments in me.
She is an alchemist working with gold,
healing those imperfections,
not hiding them in deep,
shaping them with trust,
molding them to fit back in,
trying to restore me with her palms,
blessing her magic on me
with that sacred art of Kintsugi.
Now the healed scars are in the shape of roses and daffodils,
now the vulnerabilities look gorgeous in me.
Her love is bridging my broken pieces,
now those lost and empty pieces are looking vivid.
Kissing those palms which made me believe,
breathing under her serenity,
now I felt peace in my reality.
Every imperfection seems unique to me.
Fragility, strength, and beauty,
now seem almost synonymous to one another.
To the one who rooted this resilience in me,
you mean the world to me.
Feb 4, 2021
Feb 4, 2021 at 12:24 PM UTC
A butterfly flutters
Through the breeze
The wind healing its broken wings
Nov 23, 2020
Nov 23, 2020 at 1:40 PM UTC
You said, that I have a heart of gold.
I just smiled because I know that
since the dawn of our time
you have broken it so many times;
shattered it into oodles of pieces
which I tried to repair - time after time,
then it could no longer resemble its true self.
It became something different,
some kind of kintsugi artifact,
something golden, yet something hard:
completely useless for its predestination.
Sep 25, 2020
Sep 25, 2020 at 1:16 PM UTC
please be gentle with me.
In Japan, when a piece of pottery cracks or breaks,
they fill it with gold and celebrate its character.
but I have not been filled with gold trimmings
or cherished for my scars
and you have not been kind
to the chips in my soul
or the cracks in my heart
I am held together, barely,
by the glue I found in the junk drawer
and the sheer luck of having not been
dropped in a while
but you are steadily chiseling away
at all the good pieces I have left
please
I trusted you to hold me
to put me in the cabinet behind clean glass
and you left me in the microwave
full of day old coffee that was already burnt
I am trying to stay
positive
but I'm struggling to remember
why I ever had faith in you
in the first place
please be gentle with me
Mar 19, 2020
Mar 19, 2020 at 9:39 PM UTC
Fractures healed in gold
My minds history on show
The story now told
Mar 4, 2020
Mar 4, 2020 at 3:06 PM UTC
Broken is renewed
Honored for its damages
Better than before
Nov 23, 2019
Nov 23, 2019 at 11:39 AM UTC
It’s broken, they say –
the modern world lies in ruin.
It’s easy to believe them.
I also believe
broken things can be precious
if looked after lovingly.
Apr 15, 2019
Apr 15, 2019 at 10:49 AM UTC
We tend to hide
our broken self’s
and look ashamed
from obvious flaws.
But what if you change
your point of view?
And wear those cracks
like precious scars.
Not with pride, but
simple confidence.
Mar 18, 2019
Mar 18, 2019 at 9:17 AM UTC
I can feel your heart ache under your soft, warm skin as I glide my fingers along your gold-mended pottery fractures. Skating on the glaze you've let me peer beneath to reveal your raw materials. We used to use air and clay and water to speak, now we communicate in a wordless language, born of naked otherworldly splendor. — and that planet, your body, I long to explore.
Dec 23, 2018
Dec 23, 2018 at 12:14 PM UTC