Seen below

Bathed in Sun of dragon scales

My meditation with Autumn
Has already begun, I grow in seasons
Jade dew withers my wounds like
Maple trees and the sap of kings
My blood is royal with chrysanthemum

I enjoy with the earth her own darkness
As the stars weep for my heart full of some home
I cannot name, these people pass by
Like stones swept with the river
I do not have friends but rather

Watch the colors of the leaves change
Every day I follow the moods of nature
As if they were my own, I mirror them
As the red reed flowers shine, so shall I
In the valley of Autumn, I am complete

The setting suns slant in my body of change
I’m growing older with organic tears
For a world that has hardly begun to change
Perhaps my machine-learning descendents
Will do better than we, as swallows fly and fly

My wishes won’t be realized in this life
But maybe others will continue
In the quiet harbors of morning light
The river and the tower and the green hill
Become symbols for us all, time and nature complete

The chapters in our mortal lives that
Went wasted, like the cruel paths of fate
That when once is taken, another bend turns out of view
I’ve won little praise, but fortune
Is not to be measured in wealth

But in the internal events of our dearest dreams
Where things like home, and fish, and dragons
Have a different sort of meaning
And the game of chess with the universe
Always ends with a queen, and shifting clouds
And the golden stem that is the memory
Of passage, the descendent jewels that were lost.

Facing Snow Courageously

 

I face the snow headfirst

With eyes like diamonds

For winter, I will grieve

 

In my own way, hearing

The battle cry of many

New ghosts, I will whimper

As the wind howls

And I will do a rapid

 

Snow dance at low dusk

And the stove will remain red

And my heart will hear

 

The news broken like

An empty book ready

For the calligraphy of

Hibernation, retreat, reclusiveness

The clouds of disorder

 

Of this strange world

Will not trouble me anymore

I can appreciate the whirlwind

 

Of snow ragged among

The tops of trees, and that is

Enough, tea is optional

Nature is unforgettable

The ladies seek comforts

 

But the snow only requires

A landing place, to accumulate

The white magic of another time.

MUSIC OF SILK AND FLUTES AT THE TRANSITION STORM

Swift wind, heaven high, summer’s cry of grief
The Golden sky’s water has fallen, autumn clouds
Approach, like a morning scene good and fine
The pear tree on the hill has little fed flowers
Seasons stir an endless shed of leaves
Summer frustrating into Autumn, whitening temples
Etched into temporary memory
For everything is temporary, I climb
The terrace alone, to abandon my cup
Of cloudy wine, the winds surge on
Many new ghosts cry to me, soon
The snow will dance in the whirling wind
To many places, communication will be broken
I will find myself in music such as only go to
The Heavens above, I will be not heard
And everything we spoke about last
Night under the moon will be forever not recorded
Through the gates I slowly walk to the end.

ALWAYS SOMEONE’S GUEST

It is no surprise, the mouth of suffering
Cannot compare to the Bending River
The embroidery of nature renews all ill-sentiments
The waters refresh where once we tasted poisons

Dew chills the lotus pod of our youth
Mornings taint our flesh with anticipation
The pearly curtains of new days give us a hush
Now I lie by this cold river of forgiveness

Waves toss the wild rice seeds, but my eyes rise
To the colors of immortal companions
Favorite ideas, cherished ideals, precious values
My colored brush may have captured images

But the spirit of time bitterly hangs low
In gold and silver branches of green bronze
The moon comes out, and life is slippery as rain
That which gives it its support must be the High’s skill

It is no surprise, the fragrant leaves of yearnings returns
While even reclusive hermits like me, feel it
Long rains and harsh winds have not harmed the land
On the contrary, red flowers from the shown green
Will be someone’s guest tonight, a hundred years from now.

Photo Courtesy: http://www.deviantart.com/art/–463238071

CHINESE PSALM

Jade dew withers in Autumn’s husks
The wounds of the groves of maple Trees are open
On Du Fu Mountain, in Li Bai gorge
Undertaking a mission, for leaves to fall

The river surges with waves to kiss the sky
The quiet morning light bleeds for hidden pillows
Reed flowers shine with eyebrows of memorials
The schoolmates of my early years

Do not remember me, I am my own new master
A lonely boat, a single line, my heart is full of home
With the dully and dreary chill of another year
The sun slants across evening, beating the shores

It matters not if my wishes are realized or not
Like shifting clouds, our destinies are varied
Pale Autumn still has an imperial aura
Now the little Lotus Park is filled with borrowed sorrows

Bathed in a sun of dragon scales, I hold court
With the palace open, the purple vapour of my soul
I have lived many lives in the Autumn air
Women always greet me with green feathers at Spring
And my poet’s head hangs low grown Emerald old.

Wuji’s Moonlit Night

Facing snow, I sparkle with winter
Like tiny diamonds, carrying
Away my grieves, useless

Worries of the solitary snowflake
Falling ragged through the clouds
Snow dances with my feet

In the whirling wind, not green
The stove and my heart still
Look fiery red, through I cannot

Sit to read my books for grief
For grief is a dying thing
And Wuji hangs low with moonlight

Tonight, I watch the cosmic chambers
Alone, they don’t sink low like
They used to, when I was an astrologer

I do not see the jade arms of the stars
But together in brightness, through
The empty window, tears dried up.

Photo Courtesy: http://www.deviantart.com/art/cuentos-de-domingo-427949260

Jade Dew

Jade dew are my hands
Jade dew are my feet
I walk from Autumn to Winter

Beneath the groves of maple trees
Memories within in the cold
Rivers freeze as waves rise

I am a lonely boat covered by snow
I must keep my heart to evening’s ends
Wuji to meet the night’s sky

Everyday I follow the road
To the Capital, so bleak with tears
That freeze before they hit the ground

Jade dew is my breath
Sad reed flutes in my head
I am a minstrel’s incense and song

Bathed in moonlight of a forgotten hour
This too shall pass, says the inner sage
I wait for quiet morning light

And the floating of forever-green
The coming of spring, when I am not poor
When upon the classics I may rest

In the wealth of the hopeful light
This world’s events seems too bitter
Hurried unlike my peaceful thoughts

I am too civil for civilisation’s unrest
The greed and corruption of the city
Has conquered the west, our palaces

Are now full of noblemen of a savage age
The Jade lake is now no more
Like shifting clouds, all has been changed

Bathed in a sun of dragon scales
The holy face I used to know is gone
Now I count the blue chains of our imprisonment

Pearls on curtains, embroidery on pillows
Tattoos on the poor, this land of emperors
Jade dew is my heart, I am of the server’s class

A peasant sees what others must ignore
I turn my head, sad now for the place of song and dance
That was once my home, I must leave it

Jade dew is my sweat, all waters move
To the same source, like the grandson of fishermen
Dew chills the lotus pond, fish are eaten

Oils are used, gold is hoarded
Beautiful women gathered to be used
I’ve lost the true image of life, growing old

My white head drones and gazes
Jade dew are the low branches, ah fragrant
The surplus is gone, but some things remain.

Photo Courtesy: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Asian-Mistique-57923544

Treatise on Du Fu

Vulnerable while we ride the wind
We are as gulls drifting slowly up the river
Dew is heavy on the lips of sunsets
With a loving morning in view

I can feel the edge of Heaven, tatters of Autumn
Beginning to drip with the frost of Winter
The spider’s web is ready for me
Nature’s plan for me is being revealed

Long rains have turned to frontiers of snow
And the red fruit of pomegranate drops into our mouths
Like the rubies of a fastly approaching giant Comet
While we will all be separated by a human death

I will see you in my dreams in the after-life
Old friends in exiles with only words
My poetry already knows how much I will miss you
Caught in a net of a thousand nights of laughter

The setting moon will spill of our stories
As the moment when I first saw love on your face
The waters of time are deep, deeper than memory
Don’t let the river gods take you, I know the stars

Are a country of petals shed like ancient tears
Where all the grief of the worlds turns to love
In a super-nova that has the mouth of pure love
My heart is a world of water and crystal

Already ready to be reborn, like clothes damp
With the time of spring rains, long rains
Heal everything, long rain has not harmed the land
Our weeping voices will rise and join the clouds

In the blue skies our wings will not falter
But wavering, flinching, I will reach summits
Of the Sovereign in the ordinary, the rainbows built
In the supreme architecture of my descendants.

A Guest Arrives

A guest arrives, bringing spring water
Honey dew and a flock of gulls
Jasmine wreaths and maple tea
The floral path of being swept by a cloudy wine
Is this the face to bring me to Heaven?

Is this the taste of the deepest market?
A guest arrives, with music of Mandarin
So should I go to heaven above
With her in this human world, how many times
In a lifetime can I find such as this?

A guest arrives, with spring bright and clean
One clump of peach blossoms open-mouthed
Is dark or light red more to be loved?
Her pink touch is glowing in my chest
Unrestrained as the stars moving in the ocean

A reflection of the flowers of the sun
Mirrored in my soul so constantly
A guest arrives, and my house is small and thatched
But she does not notice my poverty
She makes an alchemy of gold from my fire-stones.

My Soul is Flooded in Moonlit Night

At the end of the sky I am not alone
What thoughts occupy the highest mind
What time will the wild goose revelation come
Nearer and nearer to the final bliss

The rivers and lakes are full with Autumn’s currents
Literature and worldly success are opposed
The Tao does not listen to the lies of men
Women seek more children, while demons

Exult in human failure, minor poets trip
Throwing their best poems into the river
At the end of the sky I am not alone
The sunsets do not swallow me so easily

An army of drums meets me at the last
Stop of human travels, I have felt the white dew of love
Trap me in its sweet embrace, like a homeland
The letters I will send will go astray
Who will read the magic moon of my tongue?

Dragonfly Debts

After the battle, of many lonely years
The solitary times no longer worry,
It’s only grief and a slow dying
Facing snow, I know the color is white

A dirty walking road of dusk and clouds
There is too little light this far north
But I am old, I am finally old –
Too many places, communications are broken
*
Family is scattered, but I cannot read
My books of grief, there are too many poems
That sound the same, too many days
Each piece of spring it will return

I cannot grieve forever, my moving eyes
Return to important things, the beauty
Lost in my studies of the world, one must
Still seek joy, the greater good, across
*
The passing honors, I will reveal flying blossoms
Pollen in the wind, lost faith returns
I am drunk in the debts I have made
Nature’s drops of water, dragonflies

So little time to know each other
We should not part, happiness and I
Bliss with unusual you, I watch butterflies
Go deeper and deeper into a field of flowers.

Photography Credit: http://browse.deviantart.com/art/Dragonfly-187356316

To the Women of our Ancestry’s Heroic Age

The cities are falling
Only the hills and rivers will remain
What will happen to all these men?
Spring will overtake the streets
With green, toppling old empires
The letter from home may
*
Never reach you, it’s not worth any
Gold, but the last attempt
To tell you I loved you
That I would never be coming home
You listened for me in the bird songs
Sorrowing over the times

The flowers wept gently
Nothing can stop the advent of Spring
The caress of Summer
Life is a calligraphy beyond regret
It surpasses even our old kingdoms
The names of gold and currency
*
Are like paintings in the wind
Old economies will die, like floating clouds
But love will ascend her frequency
And remain, like nature’s Emperor-praise
That is why I cannot do without you
That is why I will always hold you dear

Even if the end of the world comes
Still you will survive in the new world
Because you are that which
All civilizations are built upon.

A Woman of Quality

A woman of quality teaches you Mandarin
She takes refuge in you like
A forsaken valley, she builds there, serves there
To create a good family
She brings fortune, like heartlands that
Side with Heaven’s authority
The world will not turn against her
For her virtues insure success
She has endurance, and a heart of lamp-flames
She sheds light on any situation
A woman of quality teaches children
The ways of the compassionate world
Beyond beauty and rivalry, she empathizes
With the high mountains, the clear spring water
Her tears reach golden lowlands
Like a forsaken widow, or divorced lady
Her smile is the last saving grace
She knows the rumor of pearls, of working hard
She picks flowers and covers berries
In the sleeves of bamboo monuments
And makes a legend out of your life
Hers is the myth that will never die.

When Will I Be Able to Return

In late sun, the rivers and hills are beautiful
The fields talk of spring until summer arrives
Naked and lucid, like the blessed realms
The breeze behind your regard
Begs for sunset colors and the fragrances of flowers
The mud of our lives has thawed
As the river’s blue has a perfect touch of white
In the eyes of the soul grows riches
Beyond the daring suffering of our times
The Earth is magnificent and free
Unlike the slavish acts of men
I’ve watched the spring pass away
In another’s cheek, life has her own rhythms
I was always too young to discover them.

The Boys and Girls Have Gone to Fetch the Wine

We’ve lived our lives, been waiting without knowing
We’ve been dreaming before we knew how to love
Oh what an evening is this evening
Of the soul and of finding another
That could live so easily with us
Together in the light of this one sweet lamp
The last light of our beloved witness
With eyes shinning for many glad tomorrows
You tell me you say see me tomorrow and goodnight
I wait for you, like a diamond falling form the sky
Your exclamation has stirred my heart
Into a natural calm of dazed happiness
I am stuck with the beloved of all belovedness
We’ve lived our lives, been hoping without faith
Last time we parted, you didn’t know I would die
But I came back in another form, do you remember me?
Oh what a lifetime is this lifetime
Of the soul and of finding another
That could easily be the one for us forever.