It seems these poets have nothing <br />up their ample sleeves <br />they turn over so many cards so early, <br />telling us before the first line <br />whether it is wet or dry, <br />night or day, the season the man is standing in, <br />even how much he has had to drink. <br /> <br />Maybe it is autumn and he is looking at a sparrow. <br />Maybe it is snowing on a town with a beautiful name. <br /> <br />"Viewing Peonies at the Temple of Good Fortune <br />on a Cloudy Afternoon" is one of Sun Tung Po's. <br />"Dipping Water from the River and Simmering Tea" <br />is another one, or just <br />"On a Boat, Awake at Night." <br /> <br />And Lu Yu takes the simple rice cake with <br />"In a Boat on a Summer Evening <br />I Heard the Cry of a Waterbird. <br />It Was Very Sad and Seemed To Be Saying <br />My Woman Is Cruel--Moved, I Wrote This Poem." <br /> <br />There is no iron turnstile to push against here <br />as with headings like "Vortex on a String," <br />"The Horn of Neurosis," or whatever. <br />No confusingly inscribed welcome mat to puzzle over. <br /> <br />Instead, "I Walk Out on a Summer Morning <br />to the Sound of Birds and a Waterfall" <br />is a beaded curtain brushing over my shoulders. <br /> <br />And "Ten Days of Spring Rain Have Kept Me Indoors" <br />is a servant who shows me into the room <br />where a poet with a thin beard <br />is sitting on a mat with a jug of wine <br />whispering something about clouds and cold wind, <br />about sickness and the loss of friends. <br /> <br />How easy he has made it for me to enter here, <br />to sit down in a corner, <br />cross my legs like his, and listen.<br /><br />Billy Collins<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/reading-an-anthology-of-chinese-poems-of-the-sun/
