Short Poems

The moonlight ripples, ripples
on water softly flowing;
as the moon is sinking
the colors of dawn float up.
I laugh at myself—always rushing,
I am like the moon:
coming from the east, going towards the west,
when will I ever rest?

Once again, my luggage packed, I'm returning to Wu;
my path lies in the wilds now—I'm like a wild duck!
All night, the sound of rain on my sail, among the reeds—
drop after drop leading my dreams through the rivers and lakes.

Jane is so thin that if, as you declare,
You see her, you can see what is not there.

Say nothing: let us sit within arm's reach:
The silent something passing to the skies
From heartful earth, more spirit-rich than speech.
And needing not the beam of tender eyes,
Shall breathe between us, dearest soul, & be
A viewless Angel born from you & me.

Heaped with snow,
bamboos in the garden
bend and topple—
flocks of sparrows hunting
for another roost

This I saw when the rites were done,
And the lamps were dead and the Gods alone,
And the grey snake coiled on the altar stone—
Ere I fled from a Fear that I could not see,
And the Gods of the East made mouths at me.

When a lover hies abroad
Looking for his love,
Azrael smiling sheathes his sword,
Heaven smiles above.
Earth and sea
His servants be,
And to lesser compass round,
That his love be sooner found!

Now it is not good for the Christian's health to hustle the Aryan brown,
For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles and he weareth the Christian down;
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white with the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear: “A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the East.”

Beware the man who's crossed in love;
For pent-up steam must find its vent.
Stand back when he is on the move,
And lend him all the Continent.

Affliction sore long time he bore,
Physicians were in vain,
Till God did please his soul release,
And ease him of his pain.