The Beggar Poet's Hexagram 51: The Arousing (Shock, Thunder)

[stevef]

While sleeping


a knock at the door.


“Who is it?”


The escaped madman with a price on his head


no one


my stupid neighbour.


“Go away.”


I have no time to dally with eagerness…


bones bleed
in the ocean,
twilight shimmers on the shore,
turtles glide over the reef


so what,
you have a new son


the world is already full
of their cries, enough to feed already…


scent the foothills
with plum, taste the clouds,
carry me over the threshold
unencumbered by worldly desire


out of reach.




Tap. Tap. Tap.


Is it the same man
or an echo in my slumber?


“What now?”


“Please come.”


Cold under my feet


lips a red wound


black
then white.


“What do you want of me?”


Black again.


“I need someone to hold him
while I tend to my wife.”


“Can’t you do it yourself?”


“He has funny legs
and won’t lie properly.”


The moon the shape
of a lemon,
a tree withering in the gale,
blood
on the floor




black eyes looking up at me.

 

[Tohpol]

I really like this one steve. Very evocative. Keep 'em coming.

 

[canislulu]

Hmmm. Interesting to find this poem after not having signed in to onlineclarity for a few days.
I agree with Topal. Evocative.

Last night I awoke to a "knocking" which while not at the door rendered a feeling similar to the one I feel from reading the poem. This gives me a whole new sense of Hexagram 51.

 

[stevef]

Chinese and Japanese poets often mention the uselessness of poetry. Tu Fu, for example:

"The bottle is empty.
The fire has gone out in the stove.
Everywhere men speak in whispers.
I brood on the uselessness of letters."

The above comments do, though, encourage us to persevere.


Steve

 

[canislulu]

I suppose whether or not something is "useless" depends on how one defines "useful".

To me poetry is "meaningful" and I do not see "meaning" as useless.

I think a sense of "meaning" and connection is useful for helping me to persevere.