Ode to the Language Poet (for @ronsilliman )

 

The language poet 

Is insouciant

Tossing the literal

Aside in favor of the nut

Within the nut

Within the shell

And really what 

Did he find other than

The wheel turning to land

On Kora's season in Hell?

Oh but pity the poor language poet

The empty shell in which

He seeks to make himself

Feel more at home

More like a hermit crab

Than a lordly pair 

Of lobster claws

Scuttling along

The ocean floor 

Tweet for @kellyjeanrebar

 There's no weakness

In the branch hanging low

Just the plant's native

 Intelligence of using

Gravity to grow

A Broken Tape Dispenser

Here's a bit of random entertainment

for those of you living 

on the razor's edge of despair

or outrage over our inherent

right of repair 

Just now I closed the kitchen drawer

and heard the scotch tape dispenser snap into pieces -- 

picking up the larger shard I tried 

To tear off a piece of tape dangling there 

and mused to myself perhaps 

I should try to tape the tape dispenser back together -- 

How meta is that 

My inner daemon replied 

And finally on the third try I managed

but by then the tape dispenser was empty 

proving that obsolescence comes 

for us moderns in many shapes and sizes

Across the Visible Spectrum

This afternoon in the woods

I paused by the side of the lake

And almost lost myself the way

Narcissus did deep in the reflection

Not of myself but in the shimmering

Beauty of nature which trembled

With a breeze's gentle touch

Making the afternoon reverberate

Across the visible spectrum of light

Photo by

@AmariAdrianna

Drinking Alone in the Moonlight (by Li Bai)

 Here's my translation of one of Li Bai's most famous poems.  This is an old translation that I'm only posting now in order to share with a new acquaintance on Twitter.  But it's such a pleasure to reread Li Bai's wonderful poem ... I'm already looking forward to a jug of wine later tonight.

In blossom time

With a jug of wine

Drinking alone

Without a friend

I raise my glass 

And invite the moon

To share the bottle

With me and my shadow

What a party we make

The moon looks down

In sober disdain

While my idiot shadow

Follows my every move

Friends for the night

We come together in pleasure

To make the most

Of this glorious weather

But while I sing and dance

Shadow wobbles unsteadily

And moon remains aloof

Far overhead

If only I could sober up

Before the party ends

Maybe we'd all end up

The best of friends

Yet before stumbling apart

Let me propose a solemn oath

That we three reunite soon

In the distant Milky Way

Meditating in Moonlight (by Han Shan)

I first took note of this Han Shan poem thanks to a Twitter posting by @EstherHawdon.  What caught my eye was the first stanza, which struck me as unusual for Tang poetry, going beyond the typical Yin-Yang cosmology as a way of describing the workings of celestial light.  But as @EstherHawdon pointed out to me, the Chinese astronomer Zhang Heng (AD 78-139) had been a very early propounder of the theory that the moon borrows its light from the sun.

In any case, notable as the first stanza is, I find the second stanza even more remarkable -- Han Shan's own unique observations about indirect illumination - how the sun lights the moon and the moon itself provides illumination for the poet's own soul.

Meditating in front

Of a rocky cliff under the

Glow of the full moon

It's brilliant as day time

Everything casts a shadow

But without inherent light

The spirit is a vast void

Naturally clear

Emptiness contained

Such as in the depths

Of a mysterious cave

The same cause that makes

The moon visible makes

The moon a pivot on which

The heart's yearning turns

Hearing the Midnight Bell (JiaoRan)

 An ancient temple

Atop Cold Mountain

A distant bell

Borne by a fair breeze

The toll lingers

The moon drifts through the trees

Until the last echo expires

A fine rime of frost

Descends from the sky

It's nighttime forever

Meditating at first watch

Deep amid this frame of mind

Enthralled