Here are some poems by the Zen master Ryokan, one of my favorites:
How can we ever lose interest in life?
Spring has come again
And cherry trees bloom in the mountains.
****
I came to this village to see the peach blossoms
but spent the day instead
Looking at the flowers along the river bank.
*****
O that my priest's robe were wide enough
to gather up all the suffering people
in this floating world.
****
Finshing a day of begging
I return home through the green mountains.
The setting sun is hidden behind the western cliffs
And the moon shines weakly on the streams below.
I stop by a rock and wash my feet.
Lighting some incense, I sit peacefully in zazen,
Again, a one-man brotherhood of monks. . . .
When I read his poems, I want to go live in a hermitage.
Please share some of your favorite poems with me.
How can we ever lose interest in life?
Spring has come again
And cherry trees bloom in the mountains.
****
I came to this village to see the peach blossoms
but spent the day instead
Looking at the flowers along the river bank.
*****
O that my priest's robe were wide enough
to gather up all the suffering people
in this floating world.
****
Finshing a day of begging
I return home through the green mountains.
The setting sun is hidden behind the western cliffs
And the moon shines weakly on the streams below.
I stop by a rock and wash my feet.
Lighting some incense, I sit peacefully in zazen,
Again, a one-man brotherhood of monks. . . .
When I read his poems, I want to go live in a hermitage.
Please share some of your favorite poems with me.
I love poetry and am interested in international books and cultures. I would love to add you as a friend, but couldn't find the name of your dog!
The final line 'Again, a one-man brotherhood of monks. . . .' whiffs up the whole experience. The selection speaks about your mind. Good.
I like Basho and other haiku poets from old Japan. I also like ancient Chinese poets who celebrate nature in their works.
I love this poem by mid-Heian period Japanese court poet, Izumi Shikibu:
In this World
In this world,
love has no color-
yet how deeply
my body
is stained by yours.
-Izumi Shikibu
Hi Harvee
I love Basho too. Hint: my dog's name is on my website!
I love Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus. see one below:
Breathing: you invisible poem! Complete
interchange of our own
essence with world-space. You counterweight
in which I rythmically happen.
Single wave-motion whose
gradual sea I am:
you, most inclusive of all our possible seas-
space has grown warm.
How many regions in space have already been
inside me. There are winds that seem like
my wandering son.
Do you recognize me, air, full of places I once absorbed?
You who were the smooth bark,
roundness, and leaf of my words.