I’m passionate about being passionate about anything worth doing (and half-ass everything else.)
PROMPT: Passionate
Reply
Tag Archives: Perception
River Vision [Free Verse]
in a flat, wide river:
something juts up
from the water --
far in the distance
for an instant,
i startle:
seeing it as an
extended arm...
like that Stevie Smith
poem, but i discover
it's neither waving,
nor drowning, but
merely protruding...
a dead limb
stuck in the river,
drag & pull balanced,
waiting to be
carried away.
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
“The earth has many keys” (1775) by Emily Dickinson [w/ Audio]
The earth has many keys,
Where melody is not
Is the unknown peninsula.
Beauty is nature's fact.
But witness for her land,
And witness for her sea,
The cricket is her utmost
Of elegy to me.
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
Night Swimming [Free Verse]
Trudging into lapping waves
On a dim and dusky eve.
Chest deep
One pops up, pressing one's chest
Onto the water,
And swims toward a distant
Silhouetted rock outcrop.
But it doesn't stay silhouetted.
Soon, one is heading into
A grand, black abyss,
There is no shape in this world,
Only the feel of limbs -- pulling & kicking.
Sounds grow ever more feeble --
And ever more rare --
Until the smell of seawater becomes
A bright and vivid sensory experience --
Layered & textured.
Rolling onto one's back, one can see
Patches of sparkling stars
In the cloud gaps.
One lays upon the waves --
Feeling as though one conforms to them
As one floats like a piece of driftwood --
And sees the twinkle of distant stars,
In a world too vast to understand.
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
Wen Fu 1: “Poetic Experience” [文賦一] by Lu Ji [陆机] [w/ Audio]
The poet stands in the Center
And stares into deep mysteries.
He's nourished by reading Classics
And tombs of the men in Histories.
He sighs as four seasons pass by
And thinks upon ten-thousand things.
He's saddened by Autumn's leaf drop
And gladdened by the tender Spring.
He feels Winter's frost on his heart,
Though his mind may be up in a cloud.
And when he sings of ancestors'
Heroic deeds, he belts the song aloud.
He combs through great literature
Just as he roams the forest wild,
But in search of a "natural" --
Shown in elegant phrase and style.
And it's just such thoughts and feelings
That set my brush and mind wheeling.
The Original Chinese:
佇中區以玄覽，頤情志於典墳。
遵四時以嘆逝，瞻萬物而思紛。
悲落葉於勁秋，喜柔條於芳春，
心懍懍以懷霜，志眇眇而臨雲。
詠世德之駿烈，誦先人之清芬。
游文章之林府，嘉麗藻之彬彬。
慨投篇而援筆，聊宣之乎斯文。
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
What I Know about Beaches [Free Verse]
On a sandy beach,
I think of each grain
of sand as being
the same.
But on a pebble beach,
Each stone has its own
color, texture, size,
and shape.
It's made me second guess
What I know about beaches.
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
Let it Float [Lyric Poem]
Sans fear of dying,
The angst of trying
Is felt and left
To float.
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
PROMPT: For a Day
Daily writing prompt
If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be, and why?
A Buddha / Bodhisattva (if there’s one about these days.) Why? To feel how his (or her) subjective experience compares to my own.
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
Foggy Morning [Senryū]
foggy morning:
a figure approaches...
nope, just a shrub!
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
Shapeshifter [Haiku]
light & shadow play
across the mountains —
redrawing ridges.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 