Poem – About Tu Fu

I met Tu Fu on a mountaintop 

In August when the sun was hot

Under the shade of his big straw hat

His face was sad

In the years since we last parted

He’d grown wan, exhausted 

Poor old Tu Fu, I thought then

He must be agonizing over poetry again.

Poem – Day’s End

Oxen and sheep were brought back down

Long ago and bramble gates closed over

Mountains and rivers far from my old garden

A windswept moon rises into clear night.
Springs trickle down dark cliffs and autumn

Dew fills ridgeline grasses my hair seems

Winter in lamplight. The flame flickers

Good fortune over and over and for what

Poem – Winter Garden

Winter garden

The moon thinned to a thread

Insects singing

Poem – Wrapping Dumplings

Wrapping dumplings in

Bamboo leaves, with one finger

She tides her hair

Poem – Wrapping The Rice Cakes

Wrapping the rice cakes

With one hand 

She fingers back her hair

Poem – What Fish Feel

What fish feel

Birds feel, I don’t know

The year ending

Poem – Year’s End

Year’s end, all

Comers of this

Floating world, swept

Poem – First Winter Rain

First winter rain 

Even the monkey

Seems to want a rain coat.