Autumnscape

You are not the one for whom I long

Wild goose, whose strange cries resound.

Deep in the mountains I lie awake

As bamboo leaves rustle, an eerie sound

I dream of my loved one far away

Whom I left behind, no peace to be found.

If I could find peace in these hours

No more attachment to this plane

I could rest, and wander no more

Through hills and fields with longing’s pain.

I let go these thoughts and the autumn

I hold them up and release them high

And watch them drift like fading leaves

Among the clouds, the frozen sky.

The dew on branch tips slowly drains

From branch to trunk to deep-drunk roots

So we delay our great demise

Hanging to this world like cliff-snagged shoots.

My end, and that of autumn, is at hand

I thought the shallow blue-shimmering sky

Reached out to me as hazy fields at dawn

Crept in my soul like the wild goose’s cry.