DU FU - The Temple - Poetry by Paul Lloyd Warner


	Du Fu is most likely living at a Buddhist Temple, not as a devotee, but as a poet who must work for his support. This poem is written while he was in exile in the northwest provinces. He captures the subtle essence of life at the monastary and the mystery of night. Of course, he would rather be writing poetry than having to work in the dusty vegetable fields.

A lamp flickers with my sleeplessness.

Delicate scents of burning incense

Clear my senses. In the deep night

Thre great room is mystical. Bells

Tinkling in farthest corners tell me of wind.

Floating up from within the enclosed

Darkness of temple gardens come

Fragrances of spring flowers.

A few last stars in the Milky Way

Are sinking below my window.

Buddhist chants will soon resound

Through the cloisters. Better to stay

Late in bed and rise after the final bells

Than be up early trampling plowed fields

With sands and dust whirling around me.




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