waves crash on rocks;
distant lightening flickers.
dog sleeps - unstirring.
Sleeping Dog [Haiku]
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Category Archives: poem
Foul Wind [Lyric]
Trees are wagging,
Whipping, and waving
That were still but
A moment ago.
Dark clouds snuck in
With pattering rain,
But, oh, how those
Foul winds do blow!
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“The earth has many keys” (1775) by Emily Dickinson [w/ Audio]
The earth has many keys,
Where melody is not
Is the unknown peninsula.
Beauty is nature's fact.
But witness for her land,
And witness for her sea,
The cricket is her utmost
Of elegy to me.
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Night Swimming [Free Verse]
Trudging into lapping waves
On a dim and dusky eve.
Chest deep
One pops up, pressing one's chest
Onto the water,
And swims toward a distant
Silhouetted rock outcrop.
But it doesn't stay silhouetted.
Soon, one is heading into
A grand, black abyss,
There is no shape in this world,
Only the feel of limbs -- pulling & kicking.
Sounds grow ever more feeble --
And ever more rare --
Until the smell of seawater becomes
A bright and vivid sensory experience --
Layered & textured.
Rolling onto one's back, one can see
Patches of sparkling stars
In the cloud gaps.
One lays upon the waves --
Feeling as though one conforms to them
As one floats like a piece of driftwood --
And sees the twinkle of distant stars,
In a world too vast to understand.
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“Loss and Gain” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow [w/ Audio]
When I compare
What I have lost with what I have gained,
What I have missed with what attained,
Little room do I find for pride.
I am aware
How many days have been idly spent;
How like an arrow the good intent
Has fallen short or been turned aside.
But who shall dare
To measure loss and gain in this wise?
Defeat may be victory in disguise;
The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide.
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Stout Clouds [Haiku]
stout white clouds
drift low over mountains
as if they might crash.
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“Lament I” [感遇一] by Zhang Jiuling [张九龄]
A lone goose flies in from the sea,
Not daring to land in water.
Glimpsing a pair of Kingfisher --
Nested Three Pearl Tree squatters --
It asks, "High up in that rare tree
Of gold spheres, are you not afraid?
Fancy clothes incur points and jeers
And those high up are harshly weighed.
As I roam dark rivers and hills,
Envious hunters give me chills."
This is the first of the 300 Tang Poems [唐诗三百首] and it is also the first of a quartet of poems. The original poem in Simplified Chinese:
孤鸿海上来， 池潢不敢顾；
侧见双翠鸟， 巢在三珠树。
矫矫珍木巅， 得无金丸惧？
美服患人指， 高明逼神恶。
今我游冥冥， 弋者何所慕？
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City Winter [Haiku]
trees, straight & bare,
line the boulevard. one leaf
blows across the walk.
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All Eyes [Haiku]
yellow fluff
clamped in a bird's beak -
now, the new leader.
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Salmon Skies [Free Verse]
Sun dips below the hill;
Light rises off the roof,
And the lowest clouds
Glow in salmon hues.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 