Short Poems

Last night
I watched a star fall like a great pearl into the sea,
Till my ego expanding encompassed sea and star,
Containing both as in a trembling cup.

The squid seller's call
mingles with the voice
of the cuckoo.


Translated by Robert Hass

Toward a better world I contribute my modest smidgin;
I eat the squab, lest it become a pigeon.

The spring sea rising
and falling, rising
and falling all day.


Translated by Robert Hass

When Venus said: 'Spell no for me,'
'N-O,' Dan Cupid wrote with glee,
And smiled at his success;
'Ah, child,' said Venus, laughing low,
'We women do not spell it so,
We spell it Y-E-S.'

The old dog barks backwards without getting up.
I can remember when he was a pup.


Anonymous submission.

Sure of the spring that warms them into birth,
The golden seeds thou trustest to the earth;
And dost thou doubt the eternal spring sublime,
For deeds--the seeds which wisdom sows in time.

And where is truth? On tombs? for such to thee
Has been my heart—and thy dead memory
Has lain from childhood, many a changeful year,
Unchangingly preserved and buried there.

Christ sprang from David Shepherd, and even so
From David King, being born of high and low.
The Shepherd lays his crook, the King his crown,
Here at Christ's feet, and high and low bow down.

No! in truth there's here no lack:
White the bread, the maidens black!
To another town, next night:
Black the bread, the maidens white!