The Jade Road Poem by Alven L. Robinson

Han Yu looked across the valley;
The curtain was falling on the eastern terraces.
Roof tiles of the ancestral temple had turned to gold;
Stone lanterns glowed soft tears in the shadows.
Prayer flags stood still as the candle of a monk's mind;
Grey snakes spiraled toward the crimson sky.

He thought wistfully of moments past- -
The silken nights in the blue houses,
Walks of solitude to the sound of her voice,
Cold mountain paths in the dawns of autumn.
She was gone now, not yet a year,
Joined with the white season of her destiny.
Spring had come, but its colors were muted,
Dampened by the mist of memory.

In a single morning the river had passed him by;
The dry bones of sunset could see the final bend.
In his heart he wished to wander, but the gong
In the distance reached for his reluctant hand.
He recalled the words of Meng K'e,
"The Way is near, but we seek it afar."
He felt the tattered brocade of his robe
And waited for the crescent moon.