rock agama pops
over the boulder's top:
sniffs & scurries.
Reptilian Investigations [Haiku]
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Tag Archives: poem
Hot Nights [Haiku]
Summer sunset
over the sprawling sea:
blackness brings no cool.
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“One’s-Self I Sing” by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]
One's-Self I sing, a simple separate person,
Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-masse.
Of physiology from top to toe I sing,
Not physiognomy alone nor brain alone is
worthy for the Muse, I say the Form complete
is worthier far,
The Female equally with the Male I sing.
Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power,
Cheerful, for freest action form'd under the laws
divine,
The Modern Man I sing.
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Survivors [Haiku]
with winter at hand,
the last crisp leaves yield
only to stout gales.
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Dark Slate Sea [Haiku]
dark slate seas
pound the rocky coast,
fringing it foam-white.
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“Ancient” [Poetry Style #5] by Sikong Tu [w/ Audio]
Immortals ride truth
With lotus in hand,
As chaos unfolds
Unlogged above land.
Moonrise in the East
As good winds are fanned.
Hill shrine in blue night,
Bell rings clear and grand.
The god is now gone
Beyond border lands
Huangdi* is not there
Great Age to wasteland.
NOTE: The late Tang Dynasty poet, Sikong Tu (a.k.a. Ssŭ-k‘ung T‘u,) wrote an ars poetica entitled Twenty-Four Styles of Poetry. It presents twenty-four poems that are each in a different tone, reflecting varied concepts from Taoist philosophy and aesthetics. Above is a crude translation of the fifth of the twenty-four poems. This poem’s Chinese title is 高古 (Gāo Gǔ,) and it was translated as “Height – Antiquity” by Herbert Giles.
*Huangdi is a name for the Yellow Emperor that is more syllabically friendly than “Yellow Emperor.” In a great oversimplification for the sake of speed and alignment of context, the Yellow Emperor was China’s King Arthur — a mythical leader of great virtue and heroism. The Tang emperors tried to trace lineages back to the Yellow Emperor, but such imagined linkages to the perfect leader are hard to maintain when an Emperor like Xuanzong crashes the ship of state.
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Stingproof [Haiku]
the Buddha sits:
untroubled by the bees
enticed by garlands.
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“Ah! Sun-flower” by William Blake [w/ Audio]
Ah Sun-flower! weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the Sun:
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the travellers journey is done.
Where the Youth pined away with desire,
And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow:
Arise from their graves and aspire,
Where my Sun-flower wishes to go.
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Trails [Kyōka]
wildlife trail:
a subtle part in the grass;
human trail:
a bald and dusty line..., but
a buck 'd be hell on your rug, too!
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“The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants” (1350) by Emily Dickinson
The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants --
At Evening, it is not
At Morning, in a Truffled Hut
It stop opon a Spot
As if it tarried always
And yet it's whole Career
Is shorter than a Snake's Delay --
And fleeter than a Tare --
'Tis Vegetation's Juggler --
The Germ of Alibi --
Doth like a Bubble antedate
And like a Bubble, hie --
I feel as if the Grass was pleased
To have it intermit --
This surreptitious Scion
Of Summer's circumspect.
Had Nature any supple Face
Or could she one contemn --
Had Nature an Apostate --
That Mushroom -- it is Him!
Tiger Riding for Beginners 