fog retreats to
reveal stony spires
like ghostly soldiers.
Stony Spires [Haiku]
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Category Archives: poem
Summer Sparkle [Haiku]
summer sunlight
sparkles on a blue lake --
always distantly.
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Sonnet 104 by William Shakespeare [w/ Audio]
To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
For as you were when first your eye I eyed,
Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold
Have from the forests shook three summer's pride,
Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turned
In process of the seasons have I seen,
Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burned,
Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green.
Ah, yet doth beauty, like a dial-hand,
Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived;
So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,
Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived:
For fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred:
Ere you were born was beauty's summer dead.
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Dandelion Spring [Haiku]
fields of yellow
through glades and pastures:
dandelions are here!
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Updraft [Haiku]
a vulture soars,
riding the updraft and
sniffing for Death.
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Anthropomorphized Hound [Senryū]
its forelimbs crossed,
the dog looks "in the know,"
but what 's it know?
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“Real” [Poetry Style #18] by Sikong Tu [w/ Audio]
Plain and simple words are chosen,
Even to express tangled thoughts.
Then one comes upon a hermit,
And one glimpses the heart of Dao.
The clear stream burbles its soft song
Amid the shady ancient pine grove.
A woodsman passes with his cordwood;
A stranger listens to a lute song.
A strong feeling takes one over,
Bringing with it bliss and wonder,
And one's easy link with heaven
Is tender as the sound of water.
NOTE: The late Tang Dynasty poet, Sikong Tu (a.k.a. Ssŭ-k‘ung T‘u,) wrote an ars poetica entitled Twenty-Four Styles of Poetry. It presents twenty-four poems that are each in a different tone, reflecting varied concepts from Taoist philosophy and aesthetics. Above is a translation of the eighteenth of the twenty-four poems. Translated titles vary — e.g. Herbert A. Giles titled this translation “Actualities.”
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Mountain Rains [Haiku]
spring rains
crawl up the valley, yet
snow relicts persist.
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Looming Mountains [Haiku]
a cathedral
set against a snowcap
plays the minor shrine.
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“My Heart Leaps Up” by William Wordsworth [w/ Audio]
My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 