Best Oriental Poems

Quiet ... to ... Hush ...
                                     Quiet ... to...

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Exotic, Oriental, Beauty

She has been my cup of tea !
Sweet as honey, this she be !

Times have become translucent.
Hard to feel the essence of her sent.

Sunday - taking her to a silver bird.
Across the ocean – Beijing I heard.

Five times, I have taken her to...

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Laying here in the cut with eyes closed,
listening to the soft, tinkling sound
of the Oriental wind chimes
My mind is calmed by peaceful meditations
In my heart, I feel universal love ...
rhythmic beat of African drums
Dark continent chants,
majestic silence of Mt. Kilimanjaro
heard off in the distance
And in...

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“Sunshine Superman and the Oriental Nightfish” 

Mellow Yellow
cool for katz, 
is chillin’

with his dream,
Oriental Nightfish,
in her universe 

Wings, 
he thinks
will work, 

his way 
into 
my love, 

good  
for flirtatious 
vagabonds

there 
we have it,
his audacious gift, 

the mind

of a 
wondering
tom cat

that indolent 
purring 
kissing critique

the...

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You Texas Cuspidata!
Not you, and not a curse:
Taxus cuspidata, for Japanese Yew!

So, don’t confuse a plant with the Ibex
Ilex serrata – that’s Christmas Holly
Or Japanese Winterberry

Butterflies, butternuts, a Buttinsky?
Shut your eyes, it’s Conocarpus erectus
(Pastor here is only saying "Buttonwood" in Latin)

Meanwhile in nature, the pines...

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Little crickets chirp,
Softly sways the bamboo tree
In the midnight sun....

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Petals I amass
with such tenderness
prick me to the quick.
? Kobayashi Issa, loose translation by Michael R. Burch
 
This world of dew
is a world of dew indeed;
and yet ...
? Kobayashi Issa, loose translation by Michael R. Burch
 
Standing beneath cherry blossoms
who can be strangers?
? Kobayashi Issa,...

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oriental red
all signs of autumn fall in;
orange shadows in line

Russell Sivey...

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I still remember
First time I saw her
Advancing alone
From out of the gloom
Dark eyes like embers
Glowing like fires
Behind veils hidden
In tribal costume

Music pulsating
Waist undulating
Backwards and forwards
She’s no commoner.
Hip belts girating
Gold coins cascading
Arms raising upwards
Trailing gossamer

Her bedlah whirling
Under-skirts swirling
Endlessly teasing
The room full of men
Gracefully twirling
Her veils unfurling
Slowly...

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Grasses wilt:
the braking locomotive
grinds to a halt
—Yamaguchi Seishi, translation by Michael R. Burch

Oh, fallen camellias,
if I were you,
I'd leap into the torrent!
—Takaha Shugyo, translation by Michael R. Burch

The first soft snow:
leaves of the awed jonquil
bow low
—Matsuo Basho, translation by Michael R. Burch

Come, investigate loneliness!
a solitary...

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dancing shadows
river’s skin is disturbed
from beneath
bamboo trees bow
as they fiddle 


Date: 5/25/2016...

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Oriental Mist
yellow empire glows
as fall’s colorful leaves
float down like gentle
rain on the lake
covering the rolling 
and lulling waters
nothing fake or dead about 
this season as love grows
under our moss covered
oak tree...

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These are translations of some of the oldest Japanese waka, which evolved into tanka, renga and haiku. 

While you decline to cry,
high on the mountainside
a single stalk of plumegrass wilts.
—O no Yasumaro (circa 711), translation by Michael R. Burch

Hush, cawing crows; what rackets you make!
Heaven's...

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Zen Death Haiku

Brittle cicada shell,
little did I know
you were my life!
—Shuho, translation by Michael R. Burch

Returning
as it came,
this naked worm.
—Shidoken, translation by Michael R. Burch

As dew glistens
on a lotus leaf,
so too I soon must vanish.
—Shinsui, translation by Michael R. Burch

To prepare for my voyage beyond,
let...

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As I slept in isolation
my desired beloved appeared to me; 
therefore, dreams have become my reality
and consolation. 
—Ono no Komachi, translation by Michael R. Burch

Submit to you—is that what you advise? 
The way the ripples do
whenever ill winds arise? 
—Ono no Komachi, translation by Michael...

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