Birthday Poem

As twilight settles

The day's weight lifts

From my shoulders and back

No more digging in the garden

At least until tomorrow 

When I turn sixty-eight

Now life begins to hold

The promise of a jigsaw

Where the pieces all fit

Except some have fallen 

To the floor

And after finishing this poem

I’ll resume searching for them 

More light

More light

The great poet said

But here on the darkening patio

It’s well enough to sit and listen

To the chittering birds

                                                                                                                           

For whether they stem

From drugs guns or money

It takes a long while

To clear toxins

From your body 

And to level up

Beyond fear and desire

In the extended play 

Of a poet’s life

A Land of Enjambment

 

I had an eye exam 

online for the first time

today to renew my license 

We live in a land

of enjambment

and enchantment 

where no one is expected

to read through to 

the bottom line's end 

And while my outward vision

has deteriorated lately

my inward keeps

improving with age

(although it's equally true

my third eye gets 

more easily tired now 

when working outside 

on a bright spring day)

A younger poet’s

intimacy with decay

must be hard won

whereas such knowledge

comes naturally to me

as an older one

For whom each line crossed  

has earned a distinctive edge

Timeless Are the Daffodils

This spring once again

There's a lingering chill

That has served to thrill  

The garden daffodils

Like a display case 

In the florist's shop 

Where the blossoms 

Have suspended their belief

In the passage of time

And the funny thing 

This time around is 

I tend to agree with them

No more swiftly passing

But with blooms ever lasting

Continuous as the stars

This enchantment of ours

Timeless are the daffodils  

In Mycelium's Reach

Nature lands on her feet

Things falling apart is always

Part of the equation

And dying I imagine

Will bring a moment

Of epic clarity

Only attainable

In mycelium's reach

 

For Marissa (on our anniversary)

 I loved you before we met

I will love you after I die

If life is but a sleep and forgetting

You are the dream come alive

Married

Twenty five years

To the day 

Still I can’t imagine

Any other way

I’d rather be living

Than here by your side

Dreaming of Li Bai (by Du FU)

 

All day long

Rows of clouds

Drift across the horizon

Wanderers who will never return

 

But for three nights now

You have appeared

In a dream so vivid

I could touch your flesh

 

Briefly you spoke

About your long hard journey

Crossing rivers and lakes

In a small fragile boat

Fearfully tossed

By wind and waves

 

While the capital teems

With the rich and powerful

And their lavish gear

There you stood in the doorway

Scratching your silvery head

A sign of life’s burdens

A lone and haggard man

 

No my friend

There’s not a single cloud

In the vast heavens

That could withstand

The rigors borne by

Your weary old frame

 

Surely you’ll enjoy

A thousand years

Or ten thousand years

Of the greatest fame

But still for now you’re destined

For a lonely and distant grave

 

 

 

夢李白 (之二)

 

浮雲終日行

 遊子久不至

 三夜頻夢君

 情親見君意

 告歸常局促

 苦道來不易

 江湖多風波

 舟楫恐失墜

 出門搔白首

 若負平生志

 冠蓋滿京華

 斯人獨憔悴

 孰云網恢恢

 將老身反累

 千秋萬歲名

 寂寞身後事

 

But for Tomorrow (by Bei Dao)

The days drift by four ways

An investigation by happenstance

My heart calm as water

That has leached deeply

Into tomorrow's riverflow

Leaving me, exposed

I climbed the foggy peak

And gazed at the moonlight

Suspicious of its many layers

Surely the road exists

The horse's hooves strike loudly

Like a stanza of eternal verse

                                                            

I haven't read or translated much contemporary Chinese poetry but I think this poem by Bei Dao is exquisite and very much in the Tang spirit, a fine example of poetry made through the process of the distillation of experience, that is to say, first evaporation of something that happened followed by condensation in verse.

And today being my birthday, I had the opportunity to write my own poem in reply to Bei Dao.

time speaks to the best part of me

time speaks 

to the best part of me

come along for the ride

trying to put new meaning 

in an old metaphor is like 

pursuing carbon capture 

after the fuel’s been burned  

I mean it can be done 

But at what expense 

Is it even worth the effort of a poem