The Peaks

You can be a scholar or a dunderhead
a gentleman or a rough; either way
you should sign your name - this seal,
that chop, this scroll, it's your own work!

I went to Tai Shan and Lao Shan
and walked up their winding paths.
Now, I can drink my tea and Turkish coffee
and contemplate a future trip to Huangshan

that Yellow Mountain where artists
are long-lived like cypress and pine
hanging from cliffs and making
ink-black calligraphy and landscapes.

Rustic scholars, touching the life and nature
climbing among the peaks and clouds.