A Lunar New Year Poem For Cigeng 2016 Poem by Daniel Brick
A Lunar New Year Poem For Cigeng 2016
The Moon makes us linger in the moment.
Its power over the tides is also felt
in the currents of our feelings. We submit
readily, and we stand very close, very still
by a grove of poplars and let the Moon's light
drench us. You tell me ancient poets drank moonlight
as if it were the wine of inspiration. Let us fill
two glasses and let the wine and moonlight mingle
before we drink. Only the soft hooting of a single owl
breaks the stillness...
Time passes, it approaches the moment of the New Year
when past and present are briefly folded into future.
But that is not our concern: The Moon and the Wine of
Inspiration have awakened something that will be awake
for a long time. I feel the meaning of life is floating
in the heavy air and circles around us. It longs to come
to rest in our place of being. Here is a sheet of paper,
a pen, a writing table. I will stand apart but nearby,
and join the owls' vigil in the poplar grove. While you
inscribe in the simplest words the profoundest thought.
Maybe the air is heavy with a welter of implications, but the poet's dancing thoughts find a thread of lyrical meaning. As a modern Chinese poet put it: Wings like scissors snip through to a distant view/ Even the Buddha is impressed by this achievement of birds. I invite you to read my poem Galileo's Gaze, about the moon's role in the natural world as a giver of inspiration.
I started reading your poems with delight and wisdom two days ago and only the most pressing family concerns pulled me away before commenting - which I will soon do. Excelsior!
While reading this the first thought that came into my mind was a word - LUNATIC! ! Are not all poets and artists, as many have claimed for ages, lunatics? ? We are all mad, mad and drunk in power of poetry, and yet there is a method in it.. Your poem, to me, is much about the method of putting 'words, words, words' in a methodic manner upon a sheet of paper. But, it is about what PRECEEDS the creative act of composing a poem that you have described here. The Owl, as in the OWL AND THE NIGHTINGALE, may well stand as a symbol of poetic maturity... Only a mature poetic mind can write about poetry - what I would like to call a Pre-Ars Poetica.. And this poem is that.. Wonderful Daniel. Here is a cheers - wine of truth and poetry - to New Year and New ideas... Thank you.
Your poem reminds me of Li Bai, the greatest romantic poet of Tang dynasty. You tell me ancinet poets drank moonlight as if it were the wine of inspiration. I liked this part. ~ Yes, a truly perceptual poet would like to drink moonlight... A very beautiful gift you presented to me on the occasion of the Chinese Spring Festival. Much appreciated dear Daniel.
Li Bai is such a wonderful poet, he belongs to all of us. Your description of the New Year Celebration was so enthusiastic I wanted to send something special in return.
I wanted to send you something precious but free; ordinary but universal. I remembered your poems about natural things and places giving you joy. My poem is an echo. Li Bai is our model of the true poet, always seeking the Moon.
The first stanza swept me up with your words and left me drenched in the magic moment of moonlight with glass raised. The interjection of wisdom symbolized by the soft hooting of the owl brings us closer to the earth and all that lives in the past, present and future. The promise of awakened creativity and invites the viewer to inscribe the meaning of life in simplistically profound way. 10+
BRINGS US CLOSER TO THE EARTH - That is it exactly, Simone. Every week I get more wine or cider or milk - because the earth pours forth these good things and we are her receivers. You embrace the promises the poem makes. It's gratifying to share the same view - joy, gratitude - with Mother Nature. New Zealand, Minnesota - it's all our Earth.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/25/2024 3:26:10 AM # 1.0.0.1119
Τhe first ''celibration's poem45151, I've read for years now, not to remamber wince when, that it has to move a thoughtful sensitive feeling.