curb crows
stand in a row.
what’s the sky say?
Crows in a Row [Haiku]
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Category Archives: poem
“Song of More Sugar” by Liu Guo [w/ Audio]
Reeds cover the tiny island.
Shallow streams cut through the cold sand.
I see the Southern Tower for
The first time in two decades.
How many days since I moored
Under this willow tree?
Mid-Autumn Festival is almost here.
On the rocks of Yellow Crane,
Do my friends still reside?
This old place has many new sorrows.
If I bought wine and we cast off together,
Could we be young again?
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Wee Hours War [Lyric Poem]
The dogs were in a wee hours war:
Growling and snapping and howling,
Breaching night's plutonian shore,
And sweet dreams those barks were fouling.
What monstrous dreamland incursions
That yapping must have brought about.
Bucolic scenes turned perversions
Of bared teeth and menacing snout.
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“Remember” by Christina Rossetti [w/ Audio]
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do no grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
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Snake Hijinx [Kyōka]
i see snakes jutting
from the water; usually
i’d discover
it’s not snakes but sticks,
but today isn’t the usual.
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Roughhousing Snakes [Haiku]
at water’s edge,
snakes wrestle: writhing, twining,
but slipping the pin.
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“Death, Be Not Proud” by John Donne [w/ Audio]
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
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Autumn Mind [Haiku]
paper lanterns
in the Daoist temple
turn my mind to Fall.
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Spring Dream [Haiku]
one pink-laden tree
stands amid a wall
of spring greenery.
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“Written While Moored on the Qinhuai River” by Du Mu [w/ Audio]
Mist touches cold water and moon embraces the sand.
I’m moored for the night near a tavern on the Qinhuai.
The singing girl doesn’t know the empire is in bitter ruin.
Across the river I hear her singing “Blossom of the Inner Court.”
Translation: Barnstone, Tony and Ping, Chou. 2005. The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry: From Ancient to Contemporary. New York: Anchor Books.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 