Autumn Gold [Haiku]

gold-sash Buddha
sits under Fall colors,
watching leaves drop.

Hide Your Light [Kyōka]

the rising sun
hides behind winter trees
as a fat kid
hides behinds a fence post,
fooling no one.

Diminished [Free Verse]

I take a sunrise photo
And find the glorious orb
Diminished by poor photography,
& upstaged by a flaring pigeon.

DAILY PHOTO: Pai Canyon

Tattered Moth [Haiku]

a moth, wings tattered,
basks in the canopy-
breaching spotlight.

“The Splendour Falls” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson [w/ Audio]

The splendour falls on castle walls
And snowy summits in old story:
The long light shakes across the lakes,
And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

O hark, O hear! how thin and clear,
And thinner, clearer, farther going!
O sweet and far from cliff and scar
The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!
Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying:
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

O love, they die in yon rich sky,
They faint on hill or field or river:
Our echoes roll from soul to soul,
And grow for ever and for ever.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying,

World Writ Minimalist [Kyōka]

sunrise paints the haze
the color of campfire flames,
and nothing looks real,
but rather like a painting
by an artist, skilled & lazy.

Pleasant Valley [Lyric Poem]

In the narrow valley
Traversed by a cool stream,
Life is but a pleasant,
And ever shady, dream.

Feet within the waters,
But mind up in the sky,
Nothing can upend one,
Nor kill what cannot die.

“Treading on Grass” by He Zhu [w/ Audio]

On winding pool with willows dim,
At narrow strait the lovebirds swim.
Green duckweeds float,
Barring the lotus-picking boat.
Nor butterflies nor bees
Love fragrance from the withered trees.
When her red petals fall apart,
The lotus bloom 's bitter at heart.

The setting sun greets rising tide,
The floating clouds bring rain.
The swaying lotus seems to confide,
Her sorrow to the poet in vain.

Then she would not be wed to vernal breeze.
What could she do now autumn drives away wild geese?

Translation: Xu Yuanchong [translator]. 2021. Deep, Deep the Courtyard. [庭院深深.] Cite Publishing: Kuala Lumpur, p.226.

Graveyard Trees [Haiku]

graveyard trees
turn crimson in the Fall, but
hold leaves stubbornly.