I floated to the West
I floated through the water
Through the air and the land
Then I became the raindrops in the sand
I floated in the night
Weightless. No effort was made by me
And all the stars were smiling
In the morning I arrived
From the Middle Kingdom far away
I floated
I floated to the West
That's what they say

The author, who writes under the pen name of Xiao Ren, studied Philosophy (BA) and Media Studies (cultural analysis: literature and theory) (MA) at Leiden University in the Netherlands. A few years ago she followed a course on poetry as part of her pre-master programme. This inspired her to start writing her own poems.For the past three years it has given her great joy to write poetry in the English language, where she is naturally inclined to express a wide range of thoughts and emotions.