Tom Montag


FIVE POEMS AFTER HAN-SHAN


AFTER HAN-SHAN'S POEM #20

If you want a good place to settle
Cold Mountain might just suit you.

A slight breeze sings in a lonely pine.
Stand close to hear how good it sounds.

Beneath the tree sits a grey-haired man
reading and mumbling. He has been here

for ten years now and has, it seems,
forgotten the road by which he came.



AFTER HAN-SHAN'S POEM #142

There are people who are stingy,
but I'm not the stingy kind.

My thin clothes are good for dancing.
I sing my songs. I drink my wine.

A bellyful is just enough.
I dance until my feet get tired.

When weeds start growing through your skull,
that's the day you'll wish you'd lived.



AFTER HAN-SHAN'S POEM #158

I've been poor before
but today I'm broke.

And cold. Nothing works
out for me. Every

road leads to trouble.
In the mud, my legs

get bent and twisted.
I might talk with friends,

but ache with hunger.
Even my brindled

cat has left me. Now
the rats eat right from

the pot on my stove.



AFTER HAN-SHAN'S POEM #308

Among these
mountains
there is wind.

The air keeps
moving, no
fan needed.

Bright moon
shines. It lights
the clouds.

I sit here,
an old man,
alone.



AFTER HAN-SHAN'S POEM #311

If you have
my poems
in your house,

that is better
than reading
the scriptures.

Copy the
poems and
hang them out

where you will
see them
all the time.

Tom Montag: FIVE POEMS AFTER THE CHINESE MASTERS

 
 
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