David Harrison Horton

@unionherald

Artist, curator, editor, and writer based in Beijing. Author of Necessary (Downingfield, 2025), Model Answers (CCCP Chapbooks, 2024) and Maze Poems (Arteidolia, 2022). Edits poetry zine SAGINAW.

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David Harrison Horton@unionherald· 11d

Congrats to Ma Yongbo, the New Generation Beat Poet Laureate. Ma has translated a metric ton of English language poetry books into Chinese, all while working on his own craft and putting out stellar work. I'm not sure who puts this honor out, but I am sure Ma deserves the recognition.

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· 12d

In the intro, it says Philip Levine went out of his way to sabotage Coulette's Collected which came out AFTER HE WAS DEAD. That seems a real dick move and petty. Can anyone fill me in to the story behind that? There's got to be something more to this, right?

Cover of Henri Coulette's book New and Selected Poems. It shows a photo of the author in an office with a lot of books and a radio in the background.

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· 26d

Xiao Hai talking about his new book Adrift in the South (Granta, 2026) at Golden Weasel in Beijing. An excellent discussion based around the book, his life as an itinerant worker, and how poetry saved him from the factories.

Anthony Tao (left) Xiao Hai (middle) translater (right).

Poster for his talk at Golden Weasel in Beijing. 7/20/2026.

Screen save of Xiao Hai in the Observer.

Text of a poem Xiao Hai wrote on the back side of a cigarette carton

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· Jul 15

Went to Yan'an to see where Chinese socialist art and literature became formalized. Below are three pictures of Mao's different desks in Yan'an (pic 1 Yanjialing compound, pic 2 Zaoyuan compound, and pic 3 Wangjiaping compound).

Mao's desk at Yangjia ling compound in Yan'an. It's very simple.

Mao's desk at Zaoyuan compound in Yan'an. It's very simple.

Mao's desk at Wangjiaping compound in Yan'an. It's very simple.

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· Jul 10

Wu Wei (sheng, my favorite instrument) and Sofija Grgur on pipe organ with the Nat'l Center for the Performing Arts (The Egg). Jukka Tiensu wrote a piece for sheng and pipe organ. This should be done more. My subsidized cheapseats cost me $11. The orchestra finished with Beethoven's 7th.

A sheng is a wind instrument that allows you to play chords.

The orchestra with the organist and the sheng player at the EGG.

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· Jun 26

A literary pub crawl tomorrow centered around Anthony Tao’s poetry collection We Met In Beijing. I’ll be reading my most Beijingiest poem at Jianghu. Join in if you’re around Beijing. Bring your own Beijing poem if you have one. This should be a great time.

We Met in Beijing Pub Crawl June 27th.

3pm Great Leap (Shichahai)
5:30 Jianghu
7:30 Golden Weasel
9:30 Modernista
Late Queenie’s

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· Jun 19

Very happy to have a poem in the new issue of Muse (out of Riverside City College).

Ode to Evel Knievel
(in which he looked at the harbor and coughed again)

I made the mistake
of teaching dodgeball
to the neighbor kids,
and now get the stink-eye
from adults in the elevator.
It’s like that Chinese metal band sang:
something something NO
something FUCK YOU,
which of course is to say
I loved the Alphonse Mucha exhibit
and have learned
zero lessons.

The cover for the issue. The word MUSE is at the top of the image. An image showing a tree, a large seed that it sprouts from, and its roots. There is a monarch butterfly in the picture too.

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· Jun 8

@jordandavis.bsky.social knows which kind of destruction he is up for in Sorry, God (sider0xylon, 2026). A fun and serious read at the same time.

Photo of the cover of Jordan Davis' chapbook "Sorry, God." It was a black & red typed strip down the right of it. Most of the cover is white.

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· May 20

swifts & slows was one of my favorite pubs. It featured collaborative work across media. It had a great 7-year run. Editor Randee Silv and team put out a lot of great work in this time. Glad to have a poem in their retrospective anthology. www.arteidolia.com/swifts-slows/

Cover for swifts & slows: a Quarterly of Crisscrossings (2018-2025). Picture shows a persons leg and a bicycle in the background.

A Song of the Piro Boys

Memory is a convenience
for the living.
It means very little
to the dead.

The sine waves
that accompany the universe
are out of phase,
make their own song.

Is there more knowledge in our bodies
than in our best philosophies?

A white bird,
against a concrete backdrop,
flies.
This day will have no meaning.

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· May 19

I've said it before and I'll it again @julianday.ca's +doc is one of my favorite zines. It features long poems, which is such a great way to become familiar with a poet's approach. I'm very happy to have a poem in the latest issue. Also features work by Maggie Chirdo and Leela Raj-Sankar.

The cover of the poetry zine +doc. It has a picture of a Taco Bell sauce packet in the middle with the words "Ahhhh .... we meet again." written on it.

Blue Book no. 4

sun through window
southward movement
clavicle and bird
item to attend to

ordered but not rowed
exteriority
wind against embankment
line

cars parked, idled
archway
center of a city

ideations
seasons of drought

documented
reckoned and accounting
photograph
whichever river that is

eyes parallel to camera
wardrobe and spangled
photoshopped
thin and pale

lilac scent
out of season
marker

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· May 16

Spittoon Movie-Telling Night @ Comedy Citadel, Thursday May 21, 8:00. Eight poets will narrate Robert Frank’s “Pull My Daisy” (1959) and the Chinese silent classic “The Valiant Girl Nicknamed White Rose” (1929). If you're in Beijing, this should be a night of pretty great neo-benshi performance.

A Still from the movie "Pull My Daisy." It shows three people standing in dark coats. Two have their hands clasped in front of them and one is holding a small American flag.

A still from the movie "White Rose." It shows a close up of the woman dressed as a swashbuckling man, with mustache and big black hat.

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· May 11

I'm sure this took an interesting journey to somehow get on the Chinese secondhand book market. Hayner Public Library's loss. (kinda think they should've kept this one on the shelves.)

Cover of Seamus Heaney's book Crediting Poetry: The Nobel Lecture. Picture shows an illustration of bees returning to the hive.

Picture of an empty library card pocket with the words" Hayner Public Library, Alton, Illinois" written on it.

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· May 10

Bubble Tea Literary featured one of my poems over on their Insta page. The poem will also be in their second issue when it gets released. They're at www.bubbletealiterary.com/home.

says "featured poet of issue 02: idiosyncrasy: David Harrison Horton". Has a picture of an ancient Chinese man sitting near some peonies.

Text

At Bai Juyi’s Tomb

I followed the deer
to get here,
and left you some smokes.

Do they smoke in heaven
or use them as currency?

Downstream they say
the carp that can make the jump
become dragons.

Is it really that easy
or just a story for the tourists?

I’ve seen that single moon
and thought of your brothers.
Mine have all died, so it’s a solitary
loneliness now.

Picture: an old Chinese man in ancient clothes holding a scroll

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· May 10

Got my copy of @apoetlibrarian.bsky.social's new book in the mail this morning. Going to re-read it over some ginger tea.

The cover of Melissa Eleftherion's book Suture. It has a picture of a framed artwork that shows a womanesque figure pierced twice through where the heart goes and two birds flying at head level.

Melissa Eleftherion starts with "how we're taught / to contain / the abject" and takes us through a journey where "family / was / a/ secret war." These erasure poems depict a struggle through trauma, doubt, and worth to come out the other side "resolve[d] / to matter." Suture gives us a well-crafted, important narrative that will stay with us. — David Harrison Horton, Necessary

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· May 2

Look what came in the mail today. @delicatezine.bsky.social. Saw there's a @robmclennan.bsky.social piece in it. Can't wait to read everything.

The cover of Delicate Emissions Poetry Zine, Volume V, Issue 1. There is a lot of pink on the cover and the image of what looks like the entrance to a detention center or jail or somewhere not very welcoming to say the least.

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· Apr 23

Sad to hear Art Papers is closing shop. A 50 year run. I interned with them back in the day and wrote a few art reviews for them over the years. They're giving away their final issue if you cover the cost of shipping. www.artpapers.org

Art Papers banner announcing their final issue.

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· Apr 20

Very happy to have three poems in the latest issue of Inkwell's literary zine Visions.

Ode to the 10¢ Beer Night Riot
(in which I was still dead a few spring days ago)
The crows mark the princesses’ graves
in Gongzhufen.
Royalty is buried all about
this city.
Tieshizifen tell us
this is the tomb of the Iron Lion,
but no one knows the story now:
a truth that became lore
that became an empty name.
A young neighbor writes
terrible novels
in the hopes that one might get picked up
to be a terrible streaming series.
It would give her enough
to move out of her parents’ place.
She has no desire to be the next
Yu Hua or Mo Yan or whoever.
She just wants to have her morning tea
in peace.

Ode to Alan Smithee
(in which Bryhtnoth taught each man his task))
A peacock in full fan
does not worry about the day’s market.
And Old Li is railing against
late stage capitalism
without calling it that:
he has a different vocabulary
for the familiar symptoms.
His chess playing friends
get fed up with him,
as he’s been honing this argument
for years.
He’s not wrong, they say,
but he might not be right.

Ode to the Cybermen
(in which the past was bound to the present and the present to aeons to come)
On some distant beach,
the tide is beating against the shore.
This is the way of the world.
Summer flings among the young
are midpoint.
The elderly no longer comment
on their cuteness and await
the separations
that will surely come.
Is this level of tiredness
something Virgil forgot to show
his pilgrim,
or did he skip it on purpose
because the journey had more meaning
than the obvious ending?

Cover of Inkwell's literary zine Visions, issue 5. It's black and with, with text written in a circle around a centered clock with roman numerals

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· Apr 18

Sugarman the donkey from the Lishui writing retreat says hello.

a donkey in a pen with its nose close to the camera

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· Apr 15

I really liked this one from Stephanie Anderson (New Michigan Press, 2024).

the cover of Stephanie Anderson's poetry book, Bearings. It shows a photo of someone in a pink dress mostly hidden by a bush covered in pink flowers

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· Apr 15

Early batches of the new SAGINAW went out without the QR code pointing people to David Perry's wonderful "n Lines & Changing" project. You can see it here: davidfperry.com/changinglines/. If you'd like a copy of SAGINAW no. 15, DM me. It's a great issue.

zine page with three black & white photos and a QR code

SAGINAW no. 15 cover with a photo of three young women dressed in hanfu (traditional Chinese clothing) in a Chinese alleyway

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· Apr 5

An overstuffed bookcase on the left, desk with laptop showing a b&w movie a long stapler and zines center and a smaller table to the right with another laptop on it that is closed. It is all fairly messy.

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· Apr 2

"Pull My Daisy" Any communities doing benshi (moving telling) events? Beijing would like to hear how you guys are doing it.

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· Mar 31

April reading sorted.

Two books on a desk: a Charles Olsen Reader and Charles Olsen, the Maximus Poems.

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· Mar 26

One of the things I miss about living in the SF Bay Area is talking baseball with poets.

A Detroit Tigers relief pitcher is throwing the ball to a Padres hitter. You can see the ump, catcher and fans behind home plate

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· Mar 21

Sound artist Sun Wei will discuss "The Moment and Place of Listening" for the World Listening Project this Wednesday (7 am New York time, 7 pm Beijing time). You can register to attend via zoom here: linktr.ee/worldlistening

A sound installation showing four bottles on a table in the foreground, wires leading to a device in the mid ground and speakers in the back.

A composite of several of Sun Wei's performances and talks.

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· Mar 15

Paid a morning visit to the God of Originality (Guandi Temple, Chengde China).

The God of Originality at Guandi Temple. He is sat behind an offering alter. The room is very colorful with hundreds of figures painted on the wall behind him

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· Mar 14

I'm very happy to have three poems in the latest issue of A New Ulster: www.scribd.com/document/100...

Lewis,

I don't know which way
to point the ghost money.

I hope you get it.

Cover for A New Ulster, Issue 152 (February 2026). Shows the sun behind a cloud over a large body of water.

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· Feb 22

I took time off in January to relearn math for a teaching certification test. I hadn’t done geometry, statistics or algebra in literal decades. I needed to get 150 for math, got 190 (95%). A few more tests to go, but passing this one is a huge relief.

Notes from my math notebook. Shows the steps to find standard deviations, the formula for slopes, permutations and combinations, and how to convert Fahrenheit temps to Celsius.

Results from my Reading test (200/200) and Math test (190/200).

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· Feb 21

No cheating, your last saved picture of a celebrity is your therapist. (Not sure I'd go to him for therapy, but I would definitely listen to his life advice.)

Johnny Cash in a black suit standing against a large (prison) stone wall.

David Harrison Horton@unionherald· Feb 21

The morning walk after an evening sandstorm always feels extra refreshing.