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The Journey to the West

Though we journey to the West We pray to the East More or less that's the way Each day begins and ends It’s a tale everyone ...

Wednesday, April 16, 2025

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

Saturday, April 12, 2025

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  




Tuesday, December 10, 2024

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

 

Thursday, October 10, 2024

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

Tuesday, June 18, 2024

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

 



Thursday, May 16, 2024

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



Monday, April 29, 2024

Not a Simulation

 Life may not be a simulation but whoever wrote the code came up with some very elegant solutions for advancing game play:

1.  Go out in springtime and throw a handful of seeds on the expectant earth; then sit back to watch the show or else you can play along on your own with a spade and hoe;

2. Later on you gather up food scraps in a stand-alone pile and watch the rules run in reverse.

Play once through and you’re hooked; it ought to be illegal it's so highly addictive.

*****

I wrote this #haibun this morning at the community compost pile after emptying a few bins of scraps from the New Moon restaurant, which means another few weeks of full employment for the maggots and worms here in town. This compost is no simulation either.


Not a simulation