the temple bell clangs:
heard from a distance,
it does not fade.
Temple Bell [Haiku]
1
Tag Archives: poem
Rocky Outcrop [Tanka]
the rocky tip
of grass-coiffed outcrop
is all I see,
but the sound of a crow's "CAW!"
comes through loud & clear.
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“A Slumber did my Spirit Seal” by William Wordsworth [w/ Audio]
A slumber did my spirit seal;
I had no human fears:
She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.
No motion has she now, no force;
She neither hears nor sees;
Rolled round in earth's diurnal course,
With rocks, and stones, and trees.
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Evergreen? [Tanka]
"the trees are green!"
except when blue, white, or black:
in morning sun,
in peak sun, in moonlight,
under dense clouds, or no clouds.
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Monkey Insight [Kyōka]
langur in a tree
remains still as others flee;
it seems to know
my limitations as well as
its own capabilities.
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“A Recluse” by Wang Changling / Amy Lowell [w/ Audio]
A cold rain blurs the edges of the river.
Night enters Wu.
In the level brightness of dawn
I saw my friend start alone for the Ch'u mountain.
I gave him this message for my friends and relations:
My heart is a piece of ice in a jade cup.
This is the Amy Lowell translation of a poem by Tang Dynasty Poet, Wang Changling (王昌齡) --a.k.a. Shaobo (少伯)
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Foggy Stream [Lyric]
A thick cloud nestled into the
valley down below,
I wonder if the forager
in that streambed knows
that it's sunny above.
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“I Saw in Louisiana A Live-Oak Growing” by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]
I saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing,
All alone stood it and the moss hung down
from the branches,
Without any companion it grew there
uttering joyous leaves of dark green,
And its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made
me think of myself,
But I wonder'd how it could utter joyous
leaves standing alone there without its
friend near, for I knew I could not,
And I broke off a twig with a certain
number of leaves upon it, and twined
around it a little moss,
And brought it away, and I have placed it in
sight in my room,
It is not needed to remind me as of my own
dear friends,
(For I believe lately I think of little else than
of them,)
Yet it remains to me a curious token, it
makes me think of manly love;
For all that, and though the live-oak glistens
there in Louisiana solitary in a wide flat
space,
Uttering joyous leaves all its life without a
friend a lover near,
I know very well I could not.
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“Afternoon on a Hill” by Edna St. Vincent Millay [w/ Audio]
I will be the gladdest thing
Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one.
I will look at cliffs and clouds
With quiet eyes,
Watch the wind bow down the grass,
And the grass rise.
And when lights begin to show
Up from the town,
I will mark which must be mine,
And then start down!
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Weightless [Haiku]
a heron stands tall
at the branch’s end,
as if weightless.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 