Category Archives: Poetry

“Drinking Wine, no. 5” [饮酒·其五] by Tao Qian [陶潜] (a.k.a. Tao Yuanming [陶渊明])

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Taken in Hartwell, Georgia.
I live amid a busy town,
   But traffic sounds are never heard.
 
How can this possibly be true?

Deep in the mind, all is remote.

Picking 'mums by the eastern fence,
   I peer at distant South Mountains.
 Sunset flares in garish color.
   Birds flock home in lines and clusters. 
 The scene conveys some great meaning,
   But words to express it fail me.

NOTES: “Drinking Wine, no. 5” [饮酒·其五] is one of Tao Qian’s [陶潜] “Twenty Poems on Drinking Wine” [饮酒二十首.] It is the best-known piece from the collection. The original poem in Simplified Chinese script is:

结 庐 在 人 境,
而 无 车 马 喧.
问 君 何 能 尔?
心 远 地 自 偏.
采 菊 东 篱 下,
悠 然 见 南 山.
山 气 日 夕 佳,
飞 鸟 相 与 还.
此 中 有 真 意,
欲 辨 已 忘 言.

I’ve started reading a review copy of Arthur Sze’s Transient Worlds (from Copper Canyon Press, due out April 14, 2026.) The first chapter discusses this poem and various translations of it, encouraging readers to make their own translation. This is mine. For more information about the book, see: https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/books/transient-worlds-arthur-sze/

Beetle [Lyric Poem]

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Photograph of beetle in Botswana, near the Chobe River.
A Beetle that was built like a tank
   Crawled over a blazing riverbank
 Now as any sane one would think
   It should head straight for the drink 
 To cool off its little ole toes.
   But as astute readers will know,
  It hasn't really got any toes,
   So, it can walk hot sands real slow.

The Regal Eagle [Lyric Poem]

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A photograph of an African Fish Eagle taken in Chobe National Park in Botswana. 
No bird ever seemed quite so regal
   As a quietly perching eagle.
 But it's not so much like a king
   When it dismounts, to take wing --
 Cause that bird has to work for its living.

River Taco [Lyric Poem]

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Photograph of Hippopotamus in the Chobe River, between Botswana and Namibia. 
We kayak where lives Hippopotamus,
   And hope it isn't submerged, a-bottom us.
 With kayak a quite crunchy hard shell --
   Us: savory filling that screams and yells, --
 We'll be a three-bite river taco to hell.

Chiaroscuro Clouds [Haiku]

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Photograph of clouds in various shades of light and dark taken at Caye Caulker, Belize.
at days end,
 clouds not burning bright white
  sink into black.

Wind Snitch [Free Verse]

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Photograph of a wind turbine under blue skies. Taken along the highway between Budapest and Vienna. 
The straight-stemmed turbines
   are tattletales,
 telling all about the stealthy
    thief sneaking overhead.

With no clouds in the sky,
    the wind could slip 
        out over the treetops,
    and no one would know.

But the turbines turn,
    slow as Taiji titans,
       letting no movement
    go untaxed.

Last Blossom [Haiku]

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bloom-laden Cherry
 tree attracts no viewers;
  the last blossom does.

Fly [Haiku]

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Photograph of a fly on a leaf, taken in Mussoorie.
fly in Summer,
 buzzes around a cow --
  dodging whip-tail.

Sunburst Fungi [Haiku]

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Photograph of joint-toothed moss and tiny mushrooms taken near Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, India.
under thick moss,
 two tiny mushrooms cause
  sunburst guitar-mind.

Dancing Dragon [Lyric Poem]

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Photograph of the head of a dancing dragon taken in Melaka, Malaysia.
A dancing dragon winds
   through streets of Chinatown.
 Head pivots, nods, and turns
   as it looks all around.

I hope its golden eye
   will not catch sight of me
 because its big, curved fangs
   do not look so friendly.

You may say its paper,
    and those teeth can't do harm,
 but there's life in its moves
    that's cause of my alarm.