I first read Ha Jin’s poem, “The Past” as part of the PBS series, Lost Childhoods about children who have survived war.  I’ve referred to the poem in my own mind to myself and to readers of The Good  Braider about the idea of not only surviving, but about finding a place one can live with one’s past.  The poem ends with the lines:
“…I will cut it and stitch it/ to make good shoes with it,/shoes that fit my feet.”