What does this poem mean? T..

The Streets of Purple Cloth

Karen Connelly

She has lost her way in the street

of purple cloth and copper skin.

Wandering alone in the city,

she has touched the veins of silk and gold.

The hilltribe men laugh at her sharp nose, her chalk fingers.

The beggars smile from their caves of tin.

The roads fray to paths scattered with green-eyed goats,

To old houses splintering now

and dreaming ghosts.

They lead to temple yards warm with rose light

where voices chant the bronze language of bells and wind.

The stone shoulders of giants curve to sleep.

Dragons with scales of brilliant glass

close their tired jaws.

The paths darken to wagon ruts

deep with the hoof-prints of oxen.

They swirl down to blue-roped rivers

banked by flowers and mud.

Women there stand in waist-deep water,

twisting silver from their hair.

She walks to a clearness and looks back at the city鈥檚 old face.

The green light of the field trembles around her.

She hears frogs and crickets but listens

to the song of her blood.

For the first time, she understands

the words.

Ms. Connelly spent time in Thailand. I think these images represent this time in her life. It is often said that having spent time in Asia helps people to achieve a peace inside and a new, almost Bhudist, outlook on the world. That, I think, is what this poem is about.