Climbing Taihang Mountain,
  On the green winding way.
  The jade-lined trail in fog,
  Floral scents from the gray.
 Stuck in unflowing time,
  'Til a song sung bright and gay...
  I'm steered back to my past
  With the grace of ghosts at play.
 Skirting roiling waters,
  A Roc soars after prey.
 The Tao is unbounded --
  Round or square as it may.

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 seventeenth of the twenty-four poems. This poem’s Chinese title is 委曲, and has been translated as: “Grievance” and “In Tortuous Ways.”