DAILY PHOTO: Sunflowers

“He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven” by William Butler Yeats [w/ Audio]

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with the golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

NOTE: This poem is also sometimes entitled, “Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven.”

DAILY PHOTO: Buddhas of the World

Big Buddha of Pai
Purple Buddha in Chiang Mai
Foguang Shan, Taiwan
Ravangla, Sikkim, India

Five Seasonal Poems of Miura Chora [w/ Audio]

NEW YEAR

New Year's Day:
the ancient voice of a
nightingale.

SPRING

idyllic nights
and quiet days:
spring rains.

SUMMER

cold water, and
a couple of rice cakes:
it's summertime.

AUTUMN

morning glories
are tousled by
Autumn winds.

WINTER

lingering wind
and snow fall
upon me.

PROMPT: Pets

What animals make the best/worst pets?

BEST: Dogs (but house-cats if one is of a less energetic / more lazy persuasion.)

WORST: Hippopotamus / Rhinoceros tie

Worlds, Inner & Outer [Free Verse]

Inside -- Outside...
Is there an outside?
I don't know.
I feel I can breathe into
Infinite space.

But how far beyond
My reaching fingertips
Must the cage walls be
For me to feel that I'm
In a cave of unknown
Circumstance?

Crow Alights [Haiku]

a crow alights
on a slender, bare branch,
riding the bounce.

DAILY PHOTO: Taipei from the Mountains

Music Limerick

There once was a player of the banjo
Who took out his act as a roadshow.
A tour by demand,
(The demand of his band.)
Crowds felt the same and suggested he bongo.

“Concentrated” [Poetry Style #4] by Sikong Tu [w/ Audio]

Evergreen woods and a rough-hewn shack.
The sun sets through clear sky.
I shed my hat as I walk alone,
Listening for songbirds.
No wild geese are flying
From whence my beloved lives.
But in my mind, we are close --
Close enough to touch.
Dark clouds stand over the sea,
But in moonlight river isles gleam.
My eyes and my words stop at
That great river that sprawls ahead.

NOTE: The late Tang Dynasty poet, Sikong Tu (a.k.a. Ssŭ-k‘ung T‘u,) wrote an ars poetica entitled Twenty-Four Styles of Poetry. It presents twenty-four poems that are each in a different tone, reflecting varied concepts from Taoist philosophy and aesthetics. Above is a translation of the fourth of the twenty-four poems.