tattered butterfly
comes to rest after a
spastic last dance.
Last Dance [Haiku]
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Category Archives: poem
Temple Bell [Haiku]
the temple bell clangs:
heard from a distance,
it does not fade.
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Rocky Outcrop [Tanka]
the rocky tip
of grass-coiffed outcrop
is all I see,
but the sound of a crow's "CAW!"
comes through loud & clear.
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“A Slumber did my Spirit Seal” by William Wordsworth [w/ Audio]
A slumber did my spirit seal;
I had no human fears:
She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.
No motion has she now, no force;
She neither hears nor sees;
Rolled round in earth's diurnal course,
With rocks, and stones, and trees.
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Evergreen? [Tanka]
"the trees are green!"
except when blue, white, or black:
in morning sun,
in peak sun, in moonlight,
under dense clouds, or no clouds.
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Monkey Insight [Kyōka]
langur in a tree
remains still as others flee;
it seems to know
my limitations as well as
its own capabilities.
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“A Recluse” by Wang Changling / Amy Lowell [w/ Audio]
A cold rain blurs the edges of the river.
Night enters Wu.
In the level brightness of dawn
I saw my friend start alone for the Ch'u mountain.
I gave him this message for my friends and relations:
My heart is a piece of ice in a jade cup.
This is the Amy Lowell translation of a poem by Tang Dynasty Poet, Wang Changling (王昌齡) --a.k.a. Shaobo (少伯)
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Foggy Stream [Lyric]
A thick cloud nestled into the
valley down below,
I wonder if the forager
in that streambed knows
that it's sunny above.
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Five Wise Lines (August 2024)
Empires arise from chaos, and empires collapse back into chaos. This we have known since time began.
The romance of the three kingdoms by luo guanzhong
Being poor is a mere trifle. It is being known to be poor that is the sting.
Jerome k. jerome; “On being hard up”
The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy’s not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him…
Sun tzu; The art of war
It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do.
Jerome k. Jerome; “On being idle”
The wise man, like a child, can be filled with wonder at anything.
Tibetan proverb
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“I Saw in Louisiana A Live-Oak Growing” by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]
I saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing,
All alone stood it and the moss hung down
from the branches,
Without any companion it grew there
uttering joyous leaves of dark green,
And its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made
me think of myself,
But I wonder'd how it could utter joyous
leaves standing alone there without its
friend near, for I knew I could not,
And I broke off a twig with a certain
number of leaves upon it, and twined
around it a little moss,
And brought it away, and I have placed it in
sight in my room,
It is not needed to remind me as of my own
dear friends,
(For I believe lately I think of little else than
of them,)
Yet it remains to me a curious token, it
makes me think of manly love;
For all that, and though the live-oak glistens
there in Louisiana solitary in a wide flat
space,
Uttering joyous leaves all its life without a
friend a lover near,
I know very well I could not.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 