for Rui Xiao
Big waves crash
on some frigid beach
far from my warm cottage
Cold time stretched
winter moved to one side
I get up and walk to the garden
Living in China
how do I dare write a poem
called Peach Blossom Spring?
I hear Eliot
when I write the word peach
and imagine his trousers rolled
(You might too
wading into the water
in just your underwear)
Pink blossoms fell
beneath the old peach trees
remembering spring
Under the roses
I find a shell and a bone
listening together to the sea
At my desk
I take a brush
and lightly dust.
© 2016 Rob Schackne
far from my warm cottage
Cold time stretched
winter moved to one side
I get up and walk to the garden
Living in China
how do I dare write a poem
called Peach Blossom Spring?
I hear Eliot
when I write the word peach
and imagine his trousers rolled
(You might too
wading into the water
in just your underwear)
Pink blossoms fell
beneath the old peach trees
remembering spring
Under the roses
I find a shell and a bone
listening together to the sea
At my desk
I take a brush
and lightly dust.
© 2016 Rob Schackne
Note: Aside from his poems, Tao Yuanming (365-427 CE) is also known for his short, influential, and intriguing prose depiction of a land hidden from the outside world called "Peach Blossom Spring" (桃花源記). The name Peach Blossom Spring (桃花源 Tao Hua Yuan) has since become the standard Chinese term for 'utopia'. The reference to Eliot is of course to his poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1905).
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