butterfly on the jungle floor,
warmed by a shaft of light.
Jungle Spotlight [Haiku]
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pink blossom drops
in still morning air
beside a quiet lake.

narrow channel,
waving reeds on each side,
boat glides blindly through.

spherical blooms,
arrayed like planets,
bees zip through.

Slender grass waves in a light breeze;
Tall-masted boat rocks in the night.
Stars hang low, over the vast plain;
The river moon struggles for height.
I'll never gain fame by the brush --
Too old for civil service posts...
Wading, wading, what am I like?
A sandpiper on the mud coast!
The original in Chinese (Title: 旅夜書懷):
細草微風岸,
危檣獨夜舟。
星垂平野闊,
月湧大江流。
名豈文章著,
官應老病休。
飄飄何所似,
天地一沙鷗。
This is Poem 113 of “Three Hundred Tang Poems,” i.e. 唐诗三百首

gusting Spring winds:
can the hunkered crow
take to flight?
Break, break, break,
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.
O, well for the fisherman's boy,
That he shouts with his sister at play!
O, well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay!
And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But O for the touch of a vanish'd hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!
Break, break, break
At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me.