the waterfall, thunderous and lofty, is a thin stream from across the valley, and yet i stop & stare
Across the Valley [Tanka]
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Tag Archives: poetry
The Obscure World [Haiku]
on a hilltop, the clouds descending, then the obscure world
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Fungi Mind [Free Verse]
From its perspective, we live in a vacant upside down underworld. It can't understand our terror over death and our obsession with life. Just thinking about it gives it nightmares, heebie-jeebies of being overrun by endless piles of creatures -- endless piles with endless needs. We may wrinkle a nose in disgust at its worldview, but it finds ours positively suffocating. But it forgives us our simple ways, we are just its food, after all.
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Streetcorner Socrates [Free Verse]
A streetcorner Socrates calls out those who grow forests of words -- not because he doesn't love the trees, but because they impede his view, making for perpetual dimness in a mind that craves light. The trick is not to clearcut, but to leave only that which enhances the view.
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BOOK REVIEW: Poetry and Prose of the Tang and Song [Trans. by Yang Xianyi & Gladys Yang]
Poetry and prose of the Tang and Song by Yang XianyiMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
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This collection includes works from eighteen prominent poets and writers from the Tang (618-907 AD) and Song (960 – 1279 AD) Dynasties of China. Among the most famous of the included authors are: Wang Wei, Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi, Wang Yucheng, and Su Shi. The included works (mostly poems but including some brief prose writings) explore subjects such as nature, social justice, patriotism, travel, and drinking. If some of those topics surprise you, you’re not alone. I may be letting my biases show, but I was surprised by how much social outrage and humor was contained in these works from the China of 750 to 1,400 years ago. That said, most of the works do present the kind of sparse imagist depictions of natural scenes one would likely expect from Chines poets in days of yore. (Think haiku, but longer — though no less devoid of analysis or judgement.)
As someone who isn’t an expert on Chinese literature or even a speaker of any of the Chinese languages, I can’t comment intelligently on how precise the translations are. However, the English language versions contained in this volume are evocative, clever, and, occasionally, funny.
To give one an idea of the kind of humor, I’ll offer this quote from a poem by Xin Qiji:
Last night by the pine I staggered tipsily
And asked the pine, “How drunk am I?”
When I imagined the pine sidling over to support me,
I pushed it off saying, “Away!”
I enjoyed this collection, and would highly recommend it.
View all my reviews
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Swallowtail [Kyōka]
a swallowtail lands; crashed into by another, it doesn't flinch; ten feet away, I lean in and it flutters away
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Monsoon Skies [Haiku]
Ruins in the Tall Grass [Free Verse]
Nature dresses up the detritus of our fallen civilizations. After all but the most resolute stonework has crumbled, cool faces of stone having sloughed off to leave rugged, pitted rock, all that stands testament to life is the tall grass that sways in the wind.
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Bucktoothed Monkey Mastermind [Common Meter]
I saw a bucktoothed monkey sit on the ground all alone. It looked the doofus - its dental- mental shortfall shone, but is the size of incisors a measure of one's smarts? Has anyone done the study, gathered data, made the charts? What if that dentally-outsized primate is a dreamer- a mastermind, a supervillain, or just a first-rate schemer? What if it just wants us to think that it's a huge dimwit? So, it doesn't show its erudition, or its razor-keen wit. Instead, it waits for us to be lulled to a false repose, so that it can show us we're all a bunch of biased schmoes.
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Sunrise [Haiku]
in the desert, the sunrise burns brightly, as if sand burned
