Let us fold the wings of our visions.
It’s night. Buildings, all angular, on each other
topple. Shadows are fractured.
The street lamp is a broken flame.
— Vladmir Nabokov
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Category Archives: Poetry Illustrated
The Moment Before
The castle, the river, murmur the stillness;
The grass, the trees, deepen the green haze;
Birds lift, never quite ready for parting.
Qixi – Chinese Valentine’s Day
In the quiet pavilion, the sky is clear,
the night holds its breath.
Spider silk gleams,
incense spirals
lovers’ stars meet—
I lean back, watching the moonlight drift
through the paulownia shade.
Time slips soft into dark.
Music
The fountain, loftily floating
its wondrous, its silvery voice,
plashes, and quivers, convoking
mirages of love and of loss.
— Vladimir Nabokov
Encountering Rain at Lone Mountain Temple
水鹭双飞起，
风荷一向翻。
– 白居易
The egret pair takes flight together,
The lotus leaves sway in the breeze.
– Bai Juyi (772-846)
The Deserted Village
Here as I take my solitary rounds,
Amidst thy tangling walks, and ruined grounds,
And, many a year elapsed, return to view
Where once the cottage stood, the hawthorn grew
– Oliver Goldsmith
Drinking Song
Each red petal,
A wine-boat, adrift—
Raise it, slow,
Not to spill
What’s left of the day.
— inspired by Ge Lifang (d.1164)
Sunset Over Lake
A language of loss and renewal, etched in the mist.
The willows lean in, trailing ink across the shore.
What we remember is always half-shadow, half-dream –
The lake holds it all.
Dream Variations
To fling my arms wide
In some place of the sun,
To whirl and to dance
Till the white day is done.
– Langston Hughes
Moon Palace
The mist chills the music notes,
wind barely stirs the robe —
drenched in dew-light
we stand, seeped in silence
— inspired by Zhu Dunru (1081-1159)
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