Poems
YIN-YANG
In front of a door
LaoZi wonders-
Which is inside
which is outside?
FOOTNOTE TO PEACE FROM DAOISM I
utter no words
no noise
be like
the trees
their color and silence
are their eloquence
FOOTNOTE TO PEACE FROM DAOISM II
Daybreak, and chilled cockcrow
blasts in cold air.
Where does it come from?
Is it from far or near?
Its ripples embrace
the mountains and paddies.
Ah, the fog, so white and thick,
conceals the villages and thoroughfares.
Behind this wall of fog
is someone who wonders like me.
WORKMAN IN THE TAVERN
He forces a smile as he slowly slips in:
the heaviness of the day on his shoulders.
In here he escapes from the subtle
connivance of time and life.
He sighs upon touching the cold bottle of beer,
and looks around in a little relief.
He sips his beer in a way
that shows he labored for it.
A CHINESE CALIGRAPHER
(upon seeing Choi Chun Heng, a Macau master, perform
his craft in
public at Landmark Mall)
He is all waves-
I mean he has the subtlety of ocean
and smoothness of gulls flight.
A fisher of thoughts, scrolls his nets.
And I tell you his hand
is a dancing lady in the middle
of beautiful spring meadow.
I thought I was an emperor
when he handed me a short poem:
the characters like black
tropical fish in the pond,
hieroglyphs in water.
I thought I owned the entire Cathay.
But most importantly and most certainly
he gave my lost heart back.
And, again, I felt what life really means.