Four Poems of Wang Mai

Dire Straits – Song of Praise
The forest canyon resounds, the cradle reaches abound
A ginseng boy flashes teeth, fishing tents trap the despots
White climate boxes seal fog, while cigarette labels shine blue
When geopolitics converges, climates forged into treatise

An Omen
The East bears a rotten wood a Cathay wind
The West shows no mercy when beheading its dissidents
Wall Street slanders Confucius and Mencius
While the Zengmu Reef vomits starfish

The Tartars’ black blood is offered to the “two Songs” '1'
The mighty cock firms up as a war eagle
What does our Divine Land of primal chaos call to its Righteous Cause?
Courage of a sword, tenderness of a heptachord, and a million Yangming '2'

1. the “two Songs”, referring to the Northern Song (960-1127) and the Southern Song(1127-1279) dynasties in Chinese history.
2. Wang Yangming, a leading philosopher in the Neo-Confucian School of Mind, educationist, calligraphist and general during the Ming dynasty.

Sea and Sky Oil Rig – An Ode
Pre-history corpses were melted into energy
Bubbled forth since ancient time, now dry
Dozens of clans across the earth
Wield with a scepter across the sky

On tigers and leopards they trample the Milky Way
Inside Andromeda they flirt with the Siren of Oil
Beneath the Colosseum they plot trade
Within walls of suffering they split pennies

The Seasons
Spring burgeons with summer’s flourishing pride
Summer nurtures autumn’s vibrant colors, its affectionate sky
Autumn harvests winter’s remoteness of meaning
Winter stores spring’s thunder and its dashing fragrance