Vs/&: Two Free Haiku
1/ Bird vs Wind
The bird strives to catch
The wind, but it is so strong
It traps the bird instead
2/ The Cosmos & My World
Just as our cosmos is, supposedly, where
Light can reach in space, so my world is
Where my voice can travel through time
The Present Interior: a Parallel Poem
For now let’s forget all troubles & miseries
In this world of red dust, forsake our family &
Friends alike, forgive each & every other’s debts
& wrongdoings as well as our own sins; for now
Let’s not get stuck to our pasts or try squeezing
Into our futures, foreseeable or otherwise
Where we may easily become too lost in
Character as in imagination; for now, just
Let it be, including everything & everybody
While the little cloud above the horizon drifts
Along, & the tiny fish keeps bubbling on & off
In the creek; for now let’s stop & separate
Our selfhoods from our minds, observe how
They are making whims & wishes, & watch
How they become conditioned by concepts &
Constructs; for now let’s stay put as the hand-
Written book of history is being torn off
Page by page, until we find our innermost
Being in the heart of our soul at a crowded
Corner; & let’s take off our masks, identities
Even awareness as if we were peeling off
An onion, though we may find nothing for now
Personal Assets
I don’t own the sun, but I
Have plenty of sun light
I don’t own the sky, but
I enjoy all the free air
I don’t own the morning
But I cherish a lot of hope
I don’t own the language, but
I am entitled to every word
I don’t own autumn, but
I can get a good harvest
Attachment Detached: for Qi Hong
I thought you were the home
To my little bird as to my
Large soul, but alas, I find
You are just my final hotel
Along my long way to Dao
Chinese Lessons Continued: a Lingua-cultural Poem
[Created Supposedly by Cangjie, &Used by all peoples well Before the Babel Tower was built]
Square-shaped, stroke-structured
Every Chinese character presents an
Abstract painting rich in symbolic
Meanings; for example, ‘自由’
[Freedom] is an enclosed framework
Where there’s always a unique stroke
Trying to break out of the cell
Whereas ‘牢笼’ [prison house] is
Open-ended in every direction, but
Even if you are as strong as a bull
Or a dragon, you can never hope to
Escape from under a simple radical
East vs West: a Synoptic Cultural Comparison (2)
1/Philosophy/Ancients
Greek philosophers focused on the relationship
Between man & nature as they walked & debated
While Chinese thinkers were concerned mainly
About how a human being got along with another
2/Language/Inflections
English pays much heed to the formal features of
Verbs/actions, besides its distinction between sex
Cases & numbers of pronouns, while Chinese has
Always remained fixed within its square shape
3/Painting/Traditions
Western painting depends on a single perspective
As much as chiaroscuro to achieve verisimilitude
While Chinese painting is an artistic expression of
Impressions that never have to imitate the reality
Footnote
Westerners keep sharpening their tools to attain
Happiness (through science, or by using power)
While Chinese try to stay with it like a Daoist
