cafe verses

1.

President's Day at leisure
public solitude
progress though hard to measure
ample gratitude
[Feb.21]

2.

after-work cafe
night subsuming day
farsi voices speaking
wot not what they say
[Feb.22]

many a crumb [ditty]

While the keyboard might endure many a crumb
it's the beverage-spill that'll do-to-death devices
if the touchpad is enured to many a thumb
yet the carrier pigeon oftentimes suffices

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for Robyn Moulding

brancusi & google [ditty]

With brancusi recollected by google
will old google be remembered in sculpture?
free expression's grown generally legal
but can metaphor still generate scripture?

"Once I went to sit at Cold Mountain" [shi in translation]

Once I went to sit at Cold Mountain
and lingering remained these 30 years

lately coming to call on friends & kin
more than half had vanished under ground

it gradually fades as does the dying candle
long a'flowing like the passing river

this morning   aface a lonely shadow
unwonted tears twainly dangle down


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[Over the years, I've tweaked and polished this translation variously. Here's my latest version. Han Shan (Cold Mountain) is the name of the poet [cira 9th Century AD] as well as the mountain to which he retired for reclusion. His collection comprises around three hundred verses.]

Amartithi postcard

Wifi from a Lebanese cafe   afternoon lunch break
Pi on Sunset the place is called   I have been here before
the universe proffers a wink   but rarely a handshake
anonymous cars passing by   through a wide open door


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January 31, 2011