Poems Inspired By Early Chinese Poetry
DRINKING ALONE (After Li Po)
The evening is heavy
with shadows. Wind
whistles through the trees
like the music of flutes.
The leaves dance
like dervishes in a trance.
Darkness drops like paint
poured on a canvas.
I observe a small cloud,
as nervous as a bride,
coyly teasing the moon.
But tonight, only
a hungry raven watches.
I croak ballads
to the distant stars.
The raven flies off.
It can’t dispel the gloom.
NEAR THE RED RIVER (After Tu Fu)
Days upon days and clouds
caught in the branches
like words in a poem
with no meaning,
or a bird, unseen but heard.
When I stare at the sky,
my desire is as vast as my mind.
But the moon is a parable
of a different kind.
Men of science, in their departments,
study mysteries, which
vanish with the spring.
Riddles without answers
are ugly things.
I know the sum of one plus one,
the distance to the sun,
how daffodils grow.
But the silence of the grave,
is it only a pleasant repose?
As men will fall to their knees,
leaves fall from trees
and are gone with a sudden breeze.
George Freek is a poet/playwright living in Illinois.
His plays are published by Playscripts; Blue Moon Plays and Off The Wall Plays. His poem “Written At Blue Lake” was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Plato's Caves online 