school of fish
becomes one super-fish
in a boat's shade.
Shade [Haiku]
2
Category Archives: poem
“The great road has no gate” by Tiāntóng Rújìng [w/ Audio]
The great road has no gate.
It leaps out from the heads of all of you.
The sky has no road.
It enters into my nostrils.
In this way we meet as Gautama's bandits,
or Linji's troublemakers. Ha!
Great houses tumble down and spring wind swirls.
Astonished, apricot blossoms fly and scatter -- red.
Translated by Mel Weitsman and Kazuaki Tanahashi; printed in: Essential Zen. 1994. HarperSanFrancisco, p. 136.
Note: While Rujing was Chinese he was teacher to the prominent Japanese Zen Teacher, Dōgen Zenji, the latter published this and other poems, hence the dual categorization of it as Chinese and Japanese Literature.
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Sky Fire [Haiku]
orange skies blaze,
briefly but vibrantly,
people watch the fade.
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“The Lilly” by William Blake [w/ Audio]
The modest Rose puts forth a thorn,
The humble Sheep a threat’ning horn;
While the Lilly white shall in Love delight,
Nor a thorn, nor a threat, stain her beauty bright.
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Town Square in Winter [Haiku]
Winter's eve:
town square vacant;
only the church is lit.
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Morning Mystery [Haiku]
winter day dawn:
single set of boot-prints
in fresh fallen snow.
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Patience [Haiku]
perched egret
clears a window in pond scum,
and waits — statue-like!
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“Sorrow” by Edna St. Vincent Millay [w/ Audio]
Sorrow like a ceaseless rain
Beats upon my heart.
People twist and scream in pain, --
Dawn will find them still again;
This has neither wax nor wane,
Neither stop nor start.
People dress and go to town;
I sit in my chair.
All my thoughts are slow and brown:
Standing up or sitting down
Little matters, or what gown
Or what shoes I wear.
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Shophouse Row [Senryū]
shophouse row
infinity of portals:
private, but not too...
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Quest [Lyric Poem]
Is it every person's dream
To be what one is,
And not what one seems?
Or would one rather be
The creature of one's dreams --
Who no one ever sees?
Or should one be the best
Of real and imagined:
The host and the guest?
How much of who we are
Is the views of others
And how much is ours?
(And is any of it
Written in the stars?)
Tiger Riding for Beginners 