from the mountain,
one can see the city, but
not feel its chaos.
Safe Distance [Haiku]
1
Category Archives: poem
Two Rivers Merge [Tanka]
two rivers merge:
the smaller, lighter branch
seems shut out, but
the bigger river moves
onward a lighter shade.
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Sunny Side [Haiku]
light on my face,
i look across the dark valley
to sun-fringed mountains.
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“Autumn” by Amy Lowell [w/ Audio]
All day I have watched the purple vine leaves
Fall into the water.
And now in the moonlight they still fall,
But each leaf is fringed with silver.
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Spine [Lyric Poem]
The spine is not a line.
It likes to twist and twine.
Bend it, stretch it, coil it;
Just don't bake, fry, or boil it.
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At Harbor [Lyric Poem]
A stiff line of ships
Stands in the harbor:
Neither rise nor dip -
Just anchored torpor.
Is a storm coming?
Will ships be unbound?
Will waves be drumming,
Or lost be all sound?
If a ship snaps loose,
Will it reach the sea
To become a recluse,
A ghost ship riding free?
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Bumping Gunwales [Haiku]
“Scorn not the Sonnet” by William Wordsworth [w/ Audio]
Scorn not the Sonnet; Critic, you have frowned,
Mindless of its just honours; with this key
Shakespeare unlocked his heart; the melody
Of this small lute gave ease to Petrarch's wound;
A thousand times this pipe did Tasso sound;
With it Camöens soothed an exile's grief;
The Sonnet glittered a gay myrtle leaf
Amid the cypress with which Dante crowned
His visionary brow: a glow-worm lamp,
It cheered mild Spenser, called from Faery-land
To struggle through dark ways, and, when a damp
Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand
The thing became a trumpet; whence he blew
Soul-animating strains -- alas, too few!
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Spring Break [Haiku]
distant hills
are now green & rain clouds
have fragmented.
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“Picking Mulberries” by Ouyang Xiu [w/ Audio]
Adrift on West Lake in a wine-laden, colorful skiff:
As flutes play fast and lutes, deftly
And a jade cup circuits swiftly,
The boat's calm rocking lulls the drunk into sleep.
Thin clouds seem to float right under the rudderless boat.
The water's blue matches the sky's,
As lake to sky and back move eyes,
"Do the clouds above match those that in the water float?"
Tiger Riding for Beginners 