A Lunar New Year Poem For Cigeng 2016

The Moon makes us linger in the moment. Its power over the tides is also felt in the currents of our feelings. We submit readily, and we stand very close, very still by a grove of poplars and let the Moon's light drench us. You tell me ancient poets drank moonlight as if it were the wine of inspiration. Let us fill two glasses and let the wine and moonlight mingle before we drink. Only the soft hooting of a single owl breaks the stillness... Time passes, it approaches the moment of the New Year when past and present are briefly folded into future. But that is not our concern: The Moon and the Wine of Inspiration have awakened something that will be awake for a long time. I feel the meaning of life is floating in the heavy air and circles around us. It longs to come to rest in our place of being. Here is a sheet of paper, a pen, a writing table. I will stand apart but nearby, and join the owls' vigil in the poplar grove. While you inscribe in the simplest words the profoundest thought.