Su Tung-po (Su Shi)
Today is the anniversary of the birth of Su Tung-po. So what better way to celebrate than with his own poem, "Remembrance?"
Remembrance
To what can our life on earth be likened?
To a flock of geese,
Alighting on the snow.
Sometimes leaving a trace of their passage.Su Tung-po 1037-1101
Things haven't changed much in the last, oh, 900 or so years. And we know what kind of tracings most of us leave behind. For more on Su Tung-po, whose real name was Su Shi, check here.
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Two weeks back, I posted about the untimely passing of small press poet Dave Church. Here's another article on Dave by someone else familiar to those working in small press poetry, Tom Chandler. He reprints a beauty of a poem called "Muses" by Dave, the last two lines of which perfectly captures, with typically incisive honesty, what all we poets do.
best,
Don
I've always liked the analogy of tracks left in snow with memory. I've used it to talk of memory for students, although it worked better in Arkansas where most folks had seen snow.
ReplyDeleteCharles, excellent insight. I've never thought about it that way. Sometimes I'm such a literalist; I'm sure I won't forget this, so many thanks.
ReplyDeleteDon