PROMPT: Listen

Daily writing prompt
What do you listen to while you work?

I don’t. I could listen to instrumental music while writing or doing other mental work, but I can’t have anything with words / lyrics involved. It’s distracting and can warp my writing.

Bell Pavilion [Haiku]

Summer night: 
bell pavilion - silent,
but for cricket chirp.

“The Bell” by Ralph Waldo Emerson [w/ Audio]

I love thy music, mellow bell,
I love thine iron chime,
To life or death, to heaven or hell,
Which calls the sons of Time.

Thy voice upon the deep
The home-bound sea-boy hails,
It charms his cares to sleep,
It cheers him as he sails.

To house of God and heavenly joys
Thy summons called our sires,
And good men thought thy sacred voice
Disarmed the thunder's fires.

And soon thy music, sad death-bell,
Shall lift its notes once more,
And mix my requiem with the wind
That sweeps my native shore.

“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.

Wen Fu 7 “Music” [文赋七] by Lu Ji [陆机]

Matter comes in countless varieties,
And the forms are evershifting, as well.
Writers must dance the varied characters
To dulcet lines where elegance dwells,
Finding the right pace, cadence, and stresses
To blend like harmony in the five hues.
Though the tune fades in and out randomly
And the path is rugged and hazard-strewn,
Those who know the ways of change and order
Will find all falls into place with a flow.
But if one misses the proper pivots
It's like grabbing the tail to steer the nose --
Like yellow painted onto wet, black walls,
One's writing becomes muddy, and it stalls.

The original in Simplified Chinese:

其为物也多姿,其为体也屡迁。 
其会意也尚巧,其遣言也贵妍。
暨音声之迭代,若五色之相宣。
虽逝止之无常,固崎锜而难便。
苟达变而识次,犹开流以纳泉。
如失机而后会,恒操末以续颠。
谬玄黄之粗叙,故浍涊而不鲜。

“A Minor Bird” by Robert Frost [w/ Audio]

I have wished a bird would fly away,
And not sing by my house all day;

Have clapped my hands at him from the door
When it seemed as if I could bear no more.

The fault must partly have been in me.
The bird was not to blame for his key.

And of course there must be something wrong
In wanting to silence any song.

Sound & Silence [Haiku]

crisp leaves rattle in a gust, 
but a chipmunk climbs in silence.

Dusky Temple [Haiku]

under dusky skies,
a temple emits droning chants
and golden light.

Ripples [Haiku]

rocking boat,
splash heard behind --
spin to see... ripples.

Elusive Cicada [Senryū]

seeking cicada
that drills my brain,
I find only a shell.