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.
Available online at YellowBridge
This is a short lyric poem (15-1/2 quatrain, or 62 lines) that tells the story of a young woman who disguises herself as a man and joins the military to fill a slot that would otherwise have required her aged and infirm father to serve. The tiny poem packs in ten-plus years, during which Hua Mulan serves with great distinction and then returns home to take care of her parents. It’s a well-known tale that emphasizes the importance of filial piety and sacrifice. Though outside of China (as well as Taiwan and other Chinese cultural enclaves,) many may know it from the Disney version which has been panned for ditching the Confucian values and replacing them with ones that were thought would resonate better with a Western audience.
The poem is mostly arranged in quatrains of five-character lines with alternate line rhymes.
It’s a quick read and there is no room for the detailed tales of heroism that are depicted in adaptations.
If one is looking for a culturally insightful telling of the story of Hua Mulan, this is the right place to look. I’d highly recommend reading it.
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 --
Our closest relative, the Chimpanzee Lacks our affinity to be fancy. To them we are but pant-wearing buffoons Who've lost all freedom to shoot the moon.
There once was a wee Asian Weaver Ant Who lived on a big banana tree plant. When they cut down his tree, a problem arose, Moving to a rubber tree would be too on-the-nose.
The Blue Sheep must be ever so sad: For of all the colors in which its clad -- None is blue; there're shades of brown, black, and white, But blue must be symbolic, if judged by sight.
Everyday at an appointed hour the Swamp Deer takes an anti-shower. It hooks its antlers into the muck, and with a twist and shake mud is chucked upward, where it rains down on the beast. It's stinky and slimy, but it's cool, at least.
A Cheetah can beat a Porsche to a hundred. (Imagine the tumble if a clumsy one blundered.) In fact, Cheetah's are so very, very fast that your future is way, way back in its past.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 