Long, too long America,
Traveling roads all even and peaceful you learn'd from joys and prosperity only,
But now, ah now, to learn from crises of anguish, advancing, grappling with direst fate and recoiling not,
And now to conceive and show to the world what your children en-masse really are,
(For who except myself has yet conceiv'd what your children en-masse really are?)
List 30 things that make you happy.
1.) Movement; 2.) Learning; 3.) Chocolate Chip Cookies; 4.) Nature; 5.) Travel; 6.) Discovery; 7.) Spontaneity; 8.) Funny Comments; 9.) Music; 10.) Silence; 11.) Harmony; 12.) Freedom; 13.) Seeing Beauty; 14.) Flow; 15.) Transcendence; 16.) Tacos; 17.) Coffee; 18.) Quintessence; 19.) Paper Masala Dosa; 20.) Mushroom; 21.) Thwarting of Convention; 22.) Pad Thai; 23.) Novelty; 24.) Entrancement; 25.) The Unknown; 26.) Reading; 27.) Writing; 28.) Puzzling; 29.) Mango; 30.) Coming To The End Of Meaningless Lists.
cow camouflage:
sitting in tall grass, stilly —
unsuccessful.
Fame is a bee.
It has a song --
It has a sting --
Ah, too, it has a wing.
the wasp hive:
its crescent entrances
see steady to & fro.
I still remember drinking on the Bridge of Noon
With bright wits of the day.
The silent moon
On endless river rolled away.
In lacy shadows cast by apricot flowers
We played our flutes till morning hours.
O'er twenty years have passed like dreams;
It is a wonder that I'm still alive.
Carefree, I mount the tower bathed in moonbeams.
So many things passed long
Ago survive
Only in fishermen's midnight song.
Translation: This Song Dynasty poem was translated by Xu Yuanchong in: Xu Yuanchong [translator]. 2021. Deep, Deep the Courtyard. [庭院深深.] Cite Publishing: Kuala Lumpur, p. 212-213
