MONGOLIA LIMERICK

There was a young monk from Mongolia
Who loved Buddhism’s peace, but was only a
little bit dismayed
to long for the days –
When Mongols ruled from Okhotsk to Anatolia.

UNITED STATES LIMERICK

There was a philosopher from the USA
Who was always charging into the fray.
He’d take either side --
Go deep or go wide --
So long as said fray didn’t come to gunplay.

FIVE WISE LINES [October 2025]

Gwalior Fort on Gopachal Hill in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India

I had better never see a book
than to be warped by its attraction clean out of my own orbit,
and made a satellite instead of a system.

ralph waldo emerson; The american scholar

Free should the scholar be, — free and brave.

Ralph waldo emerson; The American Scholar

If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine, it is lethal.

Paulo coelho

What you’re supposed to do when you
don’t like a thing is change it.
If you can’t change it,
change the way you think about it.
Don’t complain.

Maya angelou

No man ever steps in the same river twice,
for it’s not the same river
and he’s not the same man.

Heraclitus

ARMENIA LIMERICK

There was an artist from Armenia
Who worked in many a media.
Work iconoclastic…
Or pornographic;
Often it started straitlaced but got seedy-ya.

Pond Level: Summer [Haiku]

ring of sand
around the pond:
cooked down by Summer.

Calabash Time [Kyōka]

bowl in the right
calabash in the left:
drunkard empties
& then fills his cup --
amid missing time.

Taillight Kitty [Haiku]

two little kittens
crawl the undercarriage
of a dump-truck.

Dog-Rose [Haiku]

lone Dog-rose bloom
sways in a Spring breeze,
lulling into trance.

GEORGIA LIMERICK

There was a famed Georgian vintner
who thought about wines all winter –
as he thought, he drank,
and -- let us be frank –
he became less vintner than drinker.

Doghead Cloud [Haiku]

Taken on the road between Cao Bang and the Pác Bó loop in Northern Vietnam.
doghead cloud
pops up over the hill;
as bike speeds along.