Han Shan, that great and crazy, wonder-filled Chinese poet of a thousand years ago, said:
We're just like bugs in a bowl. All day going around never leaving their bowl.
I say, That's right! Every day climbing up
the steep sides, sliding back.
Over and over again. Around and around.
Up and back down.
Sit in the bottom of the bowl, head in your hands,
cry, moan, feel sorry for yourself.
Or. Look around. See your fellow bugs.
Walk around.
......
Don't you think it's probable
that beetles, bugs, and bees
talk about a lot of things -
you know, such things as these:
The kind of weather where they live
in jungles tall with grass,
and earthquakes in their villages
whenever people pass.
......
I Once Found a Lot of Cicadas
On a Farm Among the Tomaitas
The Sound from the Ground
Was Really Profound
Ending a Seventeen Year Hiatus
Prided on patience,
I wait and watch the world around me,
Cocooned, concealed, keeping countenance.
Wings full-grown, but folded.
Eyes, mind, sharp but blinded.
All attempts to emerge, impeded.
Restrained by ripples of racing rain,
Suppressed by sight of spying sparrows,
Until at last, clear day.
......
Prided on patience,
I wait and watch the world around me,
Cocooned, concealed, keeping countenance.
Wings full-grown, but folded.
Eyes, mind, sharp but blinded.
All attempts to emerge, impeded.
Restrained by ripples of racing rain,
Suppressed by sight of spying sparrows,
Until at last, clear day.
......
I Once Found a Lot of Cicadas
On a Farm Among the Tomaitas
The Sound from the Ground
Was Really Profound
Ending a Seventeen Year Hiatus
Don't you think it's probable
that beetles, bugs, and bees
talk about a lot of things -
you know, such things as these:
The kind of weather where they live
in jungles tall with grass,
and earthquakes in their villages
whenever people pass.
......
Han Shan, that great and crazy, wonder-filled Chinese poet of a thousand years ago, said:
We're just like bugs in a bowl. All day going around never leaving their bowl.
I say, That's right! Every day climbing up
the steep sides, sliding back.
Over and over again. Around and around.
Up and back down.
Sit in the bottom of the bowl, head in your hands,
cry, moan, feel sorry for yourself.
Or. Look around. See your fellow bugs.
Walk around.
......