A screen of cloud veils the mountain, And cold monkeys squawk from green pines. Fungi abound, but seeds dormant, Searching for sprouts -- alas, in vain. Somewhere near there's a fairy cave Where flutes and lutes are often played. Its Way is overgrown with moss, And the old stone gate yields no clue. Where have all the fairy folk gone?
Looking back, there's an endless plain Where flowers fall like streaming tears. It's easy to grow old; Where is the messenger to bring some news? To tell who the Golden Phoenix charms? Waking from a deep, restless dream What remains are blooms on the stream.
When I go away from you The world beats dead Like a slackened drum. I call out for you against the jutted stars And shout into the ridges of the wind. Streets coming fast, One after the other, Wedge you away from me, And the lamps of the city prick my eyes So that I can no longer see your face. Why should I leave you, To wound myself upon the sharp edges of the night?
The debt is paid, The verdict said, The Furies laid, The plague is stayed, All fortunes made; Turn the key and bolt the door, Sweet is death forevermore. Nor haughty hope, nor swart chagrin, Nor murdering hate, can enter in. All is now secure and fast; Not the gods can shake the Past; Flies-to the adamantine door Bolted down forevermore. None can re-enter there, -- No thief so politic, No Satan with a royal trick Steal in by window, chink, or hole, To bind or unbind, add what lacked, Insert a leaf, or forge a name, New-face or finish what is packed, Alter or mend eternal Fact.
There is health in thy gray wing, Health of nature's furnishing. Say, thou modern-winged antique, Was thy mistress ever sick? In each heaving of thy wing Thou dost health and leisure bring, Thou dost waive disease and pain And resume new life again.
My mind's a map. A mad sea-captain drew it Under a flowing moon until he knew it; Winds with brass trumpets, puffy-cheeked as jugs, And states bright-patterned like Arabian rugs. "Here there be tygers." "Here we buried Jim." Here is the strait where eyeless fishes swim About their buried idol, drowned so cold He weeps away his eyes in salt and gold. A country like the dark side of the moon, A cider-apple country, harsh and boon, A country savage as a chestnut-rind, A land of hungry sorcerers. Your mind?
--Your mind is water through an April night, A cherry-branch, plume-feathery with its white, A lavender as fragrant as your words, A room where Peace and Honor talk like birds, Sewing bright coins upon the tragic cloth Of heavy Fate, and Mockery, like a moth, Flutters and beats about those lovely things. You are the soul, enchanted with its wings, The single voice that raises up the dead To shake the pride of angels. I have said.
The West winds tumble fallen leaves; Autumn 's yellow, though blooms are shy; I brush at dust upon my sleeves; The horses' hoofprints dot the frost; Moonlit cocks crow amid grain sheaves; The road to town: no passersby.
Fame 's not gained by effort or skill, And would fade away ten years hence. Please don't dance, but drink your fill. Six Dynasty tales flow away: Diluted as waters spread and spill. The world feels like dream and pretense.
From childhood's hour I have not been As others were -- I have not seen As other saw -- I could not bring My passions from a common spring --- From the same source I have not taken My sorrow -- I could not awaken My heart to joy at the same tone -- And all I lov'd -- I lov'd alone -- Then -- in my childhood -- in the dawn Of a most stormy life -- was drawn From ev'ry depth of good and ill The mystery which binds me still -- From the torrent, or the fountain -- From the red cliff of the mountain -- From the sun that 'round me roll'd In its autumn tint of gold -- From the lightening in the sky As it pass'd me flying by -- From the thunder, and the storm -- And the cloud that took the form (When the rest of Heaven was blue) Of a demon in my view --
Tiger Riding for Beginners 