O Poetry! Sometimes its blues appeal
To its romanticism and endow on me
With a vicarious emotional uplifting
From the humdrum workaday prose.

And sometimes it appeals right away
To my feeling of sadness, resignation,
And restraint, and cleanses my heart
Through artistic reflection of sadness.

It teaches me to listen with enjoyment
To the sound of raindrops on the palm
Or banana leaves, to admire the smoke
Above luxury mansions and poor huts.

It rises and mingles with evening clouds,
Nestling on slopes, to be tender towards
The yellow chrysanthemums of the fall
And still while lilies of the late summer.

Crossing the bridge of time spanned
Between seasons and celestial bodies,
I'm watching the Milky Way's flow
To lose an accurate record of stars.

Tarrying by the wayside and to hearing
In the chimes of the forerunning birds,
The longing of a rider for his household
Compels him to set spurs to his fine horse.