Drinking Under the Moon

by Li Po

A jug of wine         among flowers 
in the moonlight      nobody close
so I raised my cup to the bright moon
bade it drink with me
just the three of us
bright moon     my shadow     and me
shadows only imitate
the moon cannot comprehend
in spite of that we were happy
you must enjoy life in Spring
I sang   the moon listens
I danced   my shadow capered about
we were all      once strangers
now    we are such good friends
we drink    we laugh
we laugh    we drink
though we’ll part
we'll all meet once more
I raise my cup to the bright moon
to journey beyond time


T’ang Dynasty
translated by David Sen, Dick Russell
© Dick Russell, 2013, 2023

    Coal Train Raga

           first an oil train
         longer than a mile
           then a coal train
       wider than your smile
          both going north
       both bringing warmth
   I wish you were here baby
     for my coal train blues

                  rumbling by
            longer than a mile
               first an oil train
                       then
                  a coal train
             going fast baby
       pounding the rails baby
    both bringing warmth baby
     I wish you were here baby
        for my jazzed up blues

                   lullaby baby
               it’s a lullaby baby
            those trains rumbling by
          bringing some warmth baby
            both bringing warmth baby
              I wish you here baby
                playing your blues

those more pious living in the East
believing water springs for their own good
demanding from us who live out West
some sober sacrifice be made like youth…
that we should sacrifice children to their god
to profit warren buffet routing coal trains past
our borders of commonsense   oil trains too
that sometimes explode traveling too fast…

a mile of best coal from Wyoming stripped
on its way to China for our climate suicide
we sold our coal for a song and a dance
at the stock exchange bell at risk of a knell
technology that could save us we hesitate to give
afraid their AI will out doom our own 
we'll let our AI advance with a watermark to show
its status acclaimed as the world's best liar

           first an oil train
         longer than a mile
           then a coal train
         wider than your smile
           both going north
       both bringing warmth
   I wish you were here baby
       for my coal train blues

                rumbling by
            longer than a mile
               first an oil train
                       then
                  a coal train 
               going fast baby
         pounding the rails baby
       both bringing warmth baby
        I wish you were here baby
            for my jazzed up blues

                 lullaby baby
             it’s a lullaby baby
          those trains rumbling by
      bringing some warmth baby
        both bringing warmth baby
             I wish you here baby
              playing your blues
  
 copyright © Dick Russell, 2015, 2019. 2023

Now is No Time

A look full glance
the head turned
 returned
by a walking girl
swinging her skirt

should we follow through
the evening street
now fallow 
with the summer heat

lone girl
bare feet walking
turning in a doorway
out of the heat
and passion 
       simmers
             in the street

thinking all the time
ideas all the time tangle

a blue pool
lay in the lap
of green willows

a synthetic idea
compounded by
a bridge
bone china

lulling labels
advertise fables
now is no time



©  Dick Russell, 2013, 2023

 On Once Hearing Tung Play the Lute

for Lady Tsi's melody

music such as a breeze would blow

by a spring among reeds and willow tree

 

eighteen verses sung so sadly hard men cried

our envoy hearing her story

wept tears on his sleeve

shuddered with grief

 

first bass resounded then treble

leaves in the Forest trembled

war warnings by beacons 

fire flashed from wilderness hilltops to home

whole country covered with dark white snow

 

for his melody

Tung like Orpheus learned music from the gods

demons crept from deep forest to hear him

birds flew up circled around

his music gathered all in

 

slow fast

foreboding

brightening

fading

crescendo   clouds

clear skies east

a young swift came flying

now a child screamed in the wilderness

 

dawn

by the shore of a smooth sea

waves flat 

birds silent

exiles in the north 

men living apart

remembering their homes

sadness receded

for a moment

Tung comforts them 

 

melancholy

              majestic

suddenly set free

by a long gust of wind shaking trees

sudden rain drumming on roof tiles

torrents tree trunks

branches swept by flash floods

wild deer come running

 

Don’t make Tung play for the Emperor

let his music stay free

unspoiled by fortune or fame

we wish he’ll visit again

Li Ch’I

translated by David Sen, interpreted by Dick Russell

copyright © Russell and Sen

                2017, 2023

 Near Khan Market, New Delhi 2008

If not for leavings in unswept streets
would cows roam free and stray dogs eat?

to Lodhi Gardens from the Taj at dawn
stepping into the street off the pavement
when not yet light to avoid a family’s sleeping feet
bare white soled where their business was
then before breakfast crossing the road 
to walk a circuit of Muslim tombs
entering well kempt gardens through park gates
joining others brought by car
then back past General Badhwar’s house

to
ham rashers
fried eggs 
toast
not yet reading India Legal

reading Sniffing Papa.


Copyright © Dick Russell 2016, 2023

The Lutenist’s Melancholy

She roams my love

so softly love she roams

these grim districts

where homeless queue

for beds in tenements

to each she brings

to each unsmiling face

she brings her love 

her smile    soft words

her best encouragements

she stays my love

so softly love she stays

by those   these flight-

less wounded doves

she soothes    she sings laments

So roams a child

so hopefully she roams

these streets    these squares

will she survive

all these impediments?

she roams my love

so softly love she roams

by these in need

these folk at bay

huddled on cold pavements

she hears my love

so softly love she hears

the quiet curses

of the poor    words

without embellishments

          © Dick Russell, 2013, 2023

 Death is just a crook

When sleepless I composed these lines of verse   

as if playing chess pieces blind

carefully moving words   no phrase too terse

to check the flow   like paring apple rind

in a curling helix-like state of mind

time like a spring

compresses dreams into plaited strands that bind to 

positions played long ago   ticking

into eternity   self to play thus going

on

awake I review these lines and

plumb those pools of reverie I fished

with barbless hooks that caught not what I wished

but snagged seaweed in my subconscious mind

detritus of times forgotten times missed

when brash and bold once long ago   unkind

memories from long ago flicker 

coffee’d    pick up the threads of life

the mind must clear    must curl up in its nook

to comprehend in absences mistook

more often than silence is   as meaningful

that life plays to win   death is just a crook

in the road   seen moves ahead by careful

players who know a void is a void is annul

© Dick Russell, 2013. 2023

Bringing in the Wine

did you not see

water cascade from the sky 

the Yellow River will surge straight to the sea

never return

did you not see

a person stare sadly at a mirror

counting their white hairs

morning is as green as spring grass

soon night comes

snow covers the grass 

do you not see

we must not be sad

never let our goblets go empty

why was I born

if no use exists for me?

what point would there be

if that should be true?

bring in more wine

if I spend all my wealth

each gold coin will come rolling back

roast a sheep   slaughter a cow

let's drink at the least 300 glasses

to you Sen    a toast

& to you Tang Chin

drink up my friends

don't let me see your goblets stand idle

I'll sing you a song

so listen intently

what is there left apart from wine

I only want to get drunk

never again be sober

saints and scholars are all forgotten

only those drinkers remain

Prince Chen paid ten thousand crowns

for 1 cask of fine wine

he banqueted in the palace of perfection

how come mine host that you tell us

all your money is spent?

I'll sell my best horse   the best of my furs

my servant shall scour the town

to bring in more wine

so drink up my friends!

we shall drown the sorrows of 10,000 generations

if we don't drink now

how will we ever appease our grief

Li Po

T'ang Dynasty

translated by David Sen, Dick Russell

        Chapman Chinese Issue, Scotland, 1972

Coda:  Those Songs

(And Li Po also died drunk

trying to embrace a moon

in the Yellow River

Ezra Pound)

The words of those songs would be hollow

if my love of your company was not in them

those songs would be cold

like snow on frozen mountains

where torchlight never comes

clouds sail after you

what will life be now you drift downstream

leaving the moon moored here?

snowflakes fall on this poem

Dick Russell

Chapman Dick Russell Issue, 1975

 Endless Yearning

by Li Po

i

I endlessly yearn 
like a lone cricket 
left chirping by the well
defying autumn

there will be a morning frost
my bedding is cold
just one lantern in my room
hung high 
its shadows
flicker  
mock me   
making me more sad

at the window
we both look at the same moon
even though you are far away
beyond reach

could I but grasp that yellow flower 
touch its beauty in the dark sky
its light kissing this realm so fertile
watered by such restless rivers

my soul is troubled
dreams grow weary
I think of insurmountable mountains
between us 
impossible even to dream
endless this longing
it’s breaking my heart

ii

flowers like lanterns
in the evening mist
where the sun sets slowly

then a bright moon
like a piece of white silk

I wanted to take it
to dab away my tears

I cannot sleep

I played songs on a harp
about lovers like us

then I took a two-stringed lute
each string faithful to the other
its melodies so sad
if only you could hear

you are so far away
who can carry my feelings to you?
who can bridge this ocean between us?

open skies have shut their doors on us
my eyes once sparkling
now deep wells of tears
if you doubt how my heart aches
return to me and see just how I look in this mirror

Li Po

translated by David Sen 
interpreted by Dick Russell
copyright © Dick Russell 2014