DAILY PHOTO: Sân Bóng Sóc Hà

Hermit Time [Haiku]

cave hermit
can’t see farmers in fields, just
brown to green to tan.

DAILY PHOTO: Luang Namtha Farm

Surrounded [Haiku]

farm surrounded by jungle:
what will disappear tonight?

Feral [Haiku]

Cow Pasture: Photo taken north of Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh on the hike to the Nareshwar Temple Group.
the pasture sprawls: 
once dull & docile cows
now have feral eyes.

DAILY PHOTO: Mountain & Farmland in North Vietnam

Image

A view of mountain and farmland taken along QL3 in Cao Bang District of Northern Vietnam.

Farmer’s Walk [Haiku]

Taken near Cat Cat Village (Cat Cat Ban) outside Sa Pa, Vietnam. Farmer on a fallow rice terrace.
hoe on shoulder,
farmer saunters along
a rice terrace.

The Goat [Lyric Poem]

There once was an adolescent goat
Who'd put anything straight down its throat:
It ate twigs and tires and old barbed wire,
And even once a deep fat fryer.

Rain Dance [Haiku]

ripples dance
on a flooded paddy
as rain starts, slowly.

“Weichuan Farmers” [渭川田家] by Wang Wei [王维] [w/ Audio]

Low, warm light lands on the village.
Cattle and sheep trapsing farmward.
Farmer mulls a missing shepherd,
Leaning on his staff, still on guard.
Pheasants cluck, wheat heads are heavy,
Silkworms dormant, mulberry leaves few.
Farmers stand, hoes on their shoulders,
Telling old tales, as if they were new.
How I envy the idle time --
To chat about mankind's decline.

This is poem #16 of the 300 Tang Poems [唐诗三百首.] The original poem in Simplified Chinese is:

斜光照墟落, 穷巷牛羊归。 
野老念牧童, 倚杖候荆扉。
雉雊麦苗秀, 蚕眠桑叶稀。
田夫荷锄立, 相见语依依。
即此羡闲逸, 怅然吟式微。