In the distance I can hear
a dog barking
and the sound of fast water

Rain-filled peach blossoms
shower me as I walk

Sometimes, deep in the trees,
I glimpse a stag

Standing by a creek at noon
I can’t hear
a single bell

Overhead the wild bamboos
divide a cloud-blue sky

A flying spring
hangs a white plume
from a jade-green peak

He’s gone, they don’t know where
I lean my grief
on two or three pines
and walk away

-Li Po (701-762 AD)-