from Douglas Moore’s Art of Quotation
“Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.”
Omar Khayyam, poet, astronomer
Month: May 2018
these old bones
there’s Bailey’s
in my coffee
the cat asleep
back there
on the bed
the sun peeking
through the haze
on the hills
beyond
and these old bones
almost feel peaceful
again
Ruins: The Ku-su Palace by Li Po
The garden’s desert, crumbling walls, as willows green again.
Even the sweet song of spring’s a lament.
Nothing of what was, but the moon above the river,
moon that shone on a pretty face in the palace of the king of Wu.
translated by J.P. Seaton
from a line by Lin Ch’ang-ch’ing: words gone
there we stand
face to face
all words gone
just the eyes
remain
Coming Home by Tu Mu
The children pull at my coat and inquire,
“You’ve come home, oh, why so late?
Who were you fighting with all these years,
to win that head of white hair?”
translated by J.P. Seaton
Metaphor by Chiao Jan
My Tao: at the root, there’s no me. . .
yet I don’t despise worldly men.
And now I’ve been in the city. . .
so I know I really mean that.
translated by J.P. Seaton
William Shakespeare: “What a terrible era in which idiots govern the blind.”
from Douglas Moore’s Art of Quotation
“If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering outspoken fellow; but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much.”
from Douglas Moore’s Art of Quotation
“If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering outspoken fellow; but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much.”
poem 2 by Wang Fan-chih
Having power need not warp your heart and mind,
but if you cheat folks, you put yourself in danger.
Just look at the fire on the wood:
once it’s burned up the fuel, the fire’s gone, too.
translated by J.P. Seaton
poem 1 by Wang Fan-chih
Nobody lives to be a hundred.
But they try to write rhymes that’ll last a thousand.
Forge an iron gate to fence out the demons:
demons watch, clapping, and laughing.
translated by J.P. Seaton
Leonard Durso 