Han River Poems

Monday, September 10, 2018

almost like a September morning in Brooklyn.

the wind direction changed the other day

from the south to the northwest

and with it brought clear clean skies

and cool strong breeze

almost like a September morning in Brooklyn

i can almost see teenagers and teachers

returning to high school after summer

but i hear it is ninety-five degrees in Brooklyn

and the classrooms, auditorium, and cafeteria

still have no fans or air conditioning

i would much rather be in Taichung

i cannot go back again

the place is not the same

as sure as i live

with the first sign of fall

a brisk wind from the north

sends ripples to waves and waters white

as the Han rushes to beat it south

before more expats abandon Taipei

before more waterlogged southerns

push not north enough past Taichung

here i stay to ride my bicycle

resigned to pedal harder upstream

remembering the dream

that brought me to Taiwan

on China's back door

the Cultural Revolution i never saw

and urges for going nevermore

September 9, 2018
www.readingsandridings.jimdo.com

Purchase "Unnatural Beauty;Poems from the Han Riverside" here.

Sunday, September 9, 2018

What Washes Up on Penghu Shores

western wind lashes flatland

and rain splashes coral limestone
melting walls, collapsing roofs of sand

abandoned homes left alone
in the salty breeze
become a tourist zone

with no better fishing hole

living where the tide is low

in the Penghu archipelago

but now junks with cash bait
and fishermen with ambition

to Chinese rendezvous wait

better to naturally disintegrate
than fall into shadows of toppled canyons

to tumble down in hate

i would rather breeze across these islands
than like grains of sand blasted

from Manhattan and Long to Staten

on countless Penghu shores

simplified characters appear washed up
on plastic labels consumers bore

typhoon west wind wanders

counter-clockwise from Taiwan

as invasive investors ponder

empty tombs of living rooms

eighteen-percenters disgusted

their casino bay doomed

without a resolution
Magong is better suited

with less foreign pollution

trapped in a heart-shaped weir
let the future wait

before it is late here

forgo a modern state

choose to die like seven beauties

rather then be by pirates raped

in a windswept mind i shall sustain

like gentle lapping waves
weathering my life the same

September 9, 2018

www.readingsandridings.jimdo.com

Purchase "Unnatural Beauty;Poems from the Han Riverside" here.

Sunday, August 19, 2018

like turtles rest where the river is slow

out of the water

needing sunshine

avoiding being pushed into speedy waterfalls

unobstructed by blockages

stoppages on our way

till waters rise with rain

overriding the locks of progress

spilling us over

with the flow

to our nests

to our partners

the cycle repeating

irreversibly

pausing at stations on a liquid road

passenger turtles

carrying our loads

not caring how far to go

or rushing for a timetable

to a terminal depot

only seasons of warmth and coolness

living like pensioners

on nature's rules

indistinguishable

without bodies of disguise
in external trappings

we are nothing more than spirits

swimming through the material world

August 19, 2018

www.readingsandridings.jimdo.com

Purchase "Unnatural Beauty;Poems from the Han Riverside" here.

Saturday, July 28, 2018

it may happen one day but not quite yet

one day, i will refuse to eat anything but ice-cream

i will forget my name and why i came

even forget my granddaughter and my pets' names

everything but your love will be lost, but not quite yet

simple peeves like losing keys are common

did i take my pills and where are my glasses

on the tip of a tongue like a tourniquet

everything will vanish from my mind yet…

do not bring me down with a condescending frown

for forgetting the world or what is new in town

i won’t make a sound when the agent comes around

or make knowing me something to regret

for all the ignoring and turning of the cheek

to let what is nuclear from the family seep

or fall into the sinister hands of a creep

from me recklessly? Not quite yet

it is oedipal to bite the hand that fed

be it clenched fascist or utterly red

loose lips that sink ships to an untimely bed

will cease to babble as soon as i am dead

for the lost minutes turning joy into blame

or wrists that are sprained by mailing my name

get over on me now but do not regret

it may happen one day, but not quite yet

July 29, 2018

www.readingsandridings.jimdo.com
Purchase "Unnatural Beauty; Poems from the Han Riverside" here.
Copyright © 2018 by David Barry Temple. All rights reserved.

on a clear Taichung night in the month of ghosts

ã€Œlovers drinking under the starsã€çš„åœ–ç‰‡æœå°‹çµæžœ

on a clear Taichung night in the month of ghosts

Perseid stars can be my lovers

high from a mountain looking up

or from the River Han above her

lights are few there and the sky has plenty

along the bike path of drunken dreams

heavenly perpetuity can cloud my mind

radiating Perseus constellation in streams

a crescent moon will have set

favorable for midnight fireballs

Han water flows under Swift-Tuttle

a most favorable forecast for all

on August twelfth i will grab my tequila

ride up and away from town

with bottle raised high multi-tasking

for what i seek shall be found

she is done with her lover in the night

though i could make her stars warm

why would she not share life’s mystery

remaining unconscious through the dawn

when i arrive upstream i will pour the bottle

into the dorsal spine

resistant to a night of crawlers

with spray so they will be kind

when i ride home wobbling

looking for the front door key

she will not see me returning

from eternity

Saturday, July 14, 2018

the family gathers over the rainbow of Taiwan

high above the yellow horde proletariat of Hualien

black undertones of misogynist blame

privileged drifters' vengeful claim

permitting posting on their page for distaste

left on Taiwanese lips for the dismemberment waste

surely it was one of the sick Taiwanese men

and not one of the colorful among them...

democracy replaced by vague consensus

backpacking new-agers shouldering expenses

smoke screening cigarettes allowing pretenses

banned canine unleashing exclusions

for the primitive pleasure of field defecation

a tax and fee free squatting vacation

leaving jet fuel traces in the wake

leaving litter and bitterness in what they take

leaving the urban world for squalor

should visit a ghetto and leave a dollar

or better yet school young innocence

on how to survive without paying red cents

instead of banning this brother for suggesting

it is better to learn survival than to be guesting

off charity and a collective pot

that ties societies into a knot

my green lovers of natural flow

sans raw meat that the paleo know

shun me not with your rainbow pout

come back to reality and work it out

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

wishing it would rain

certainly i would ride into a downpour
enduring pelting on my head
knowing a child waits to be inspired
and i am the agent of that inspiration.
drenched i would accept the outer shell of wetness
when warm and dry the love inside them blooms
grooms them into lovely humans
for others to embrace
yet for ridicule i would stay home
knowing it might sound quite strange
wishing rain would change my mind
whip the wind and come what may
when all to gain would be the same
no benefit from dishonest business
engorged with greedy ulterior purpose
learning language to succeed
not for moral foundation
not for the golden rules
but for the cloudburst of sudden storm
on pilgrims' wandering salvation
the clouds that hinder obsession
remind them comfort for righteous exists
around billowed clouds of heavy moisture
incipient destination for ambitious men's torture

July 3, 2018
www.readingsandridings.jimdo.com
Purchase "Unnatural Beauty; Poems from the Han Riverside" here.
Copyright © 2018 by David Barry Temple. All rights reserved