[Nick McRae]

Rev. 1 (in progress)

Green and Black Beans

In my garden black beans grow.
And green, apricot, blueberry.
My cherry trees fruit in
the molten sun of late summer.
I walk along a dirt path
where the golden oriole sings,
her morning serene and full
of light. I pass a salmon
merchant on the eastern flank.
To the north, a brood of chicken.
I watch the animals collide
like marble and piles of stone.
Their eyes blink at the pebbled road.
In my garden black beans grow
from rich, ancient soil.
I walk in circles between
my den, bedroom, my cellar.

- jade -> dirt

********************************

Original:

Green and Black Beans

In my garden black beans grow.
And green, apricot, blueberry.
My cherry trees fruit in
the molten sun of late summer.
I walk along a jade path
where the golden oriole sings,
her morning serene and full
of light. I pass a salmon
merchant on the eastern flank.
To the north, a brood of chicken.
I watch the animals collide
like marble and piles of stone.
Their eyes blink at the pebbled road.
In my garden black beans grow
from rich, ancient soil.
I walk in circles between
my den, bedroom, my cellar.

************************

As always I'll try to reply when I can. I have a clear day soon, so we'll see what happens.

For those interested in Du Fu:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Du_Fu

Du Fu (Chinese: 杜甫; Wade–Giles: Tu Fu; 712–770) was a Chinese poet and politician during the Tang dynasty. Together with his elder contemporary and friend Li Bai, Du is often considered one of the greatest Chinese poets.[1] His greatest ambition was to serve his country as a successful civil servant, but Du proved unable to make the necessary accommodations. His life, like all of China, was devastated by the An Lushan Rebellion of 755, and his last 15 years were a time of almost constant unrest.

Although initially he was little-known to other writers, his works came to be hugely influential in both Chinese and Japanese literary culture. Of his poetic writing, nearly fifteen hundred poems have been preserved over the ages.[1] He has been called the "Poet-Historian" and the "Poet-Sage" by Chinese critics, while the range of his work has allowed him to be introduced to Western readers as "the Chinese Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, Wordsworth, Béranger, Hugo or Baudelaire".