BAMBOO

As if on a slope

before a grove of Mahal bamboo,

not knowing how to enter,

it’s hard to say

where poetry parts from painting.

Across the yellow, thirsty page of moonlight

night spills its endless ink,

a scroll of dark bamboo

by Wen Yuke. Late wind

whistles the banksides,

swaying the canes, their leaves

stirred to the soft murmur

of foraging birds, of fish

discussing a Wheel River poem,

its final rhyme.

Mahal bamboo

: A species of thick growing, clumping bamboo particularly suited to stabilizing riverbanks.

Wen

Yuke

: Northern Song dynasty painter and poet (1018—1079), courtesy name Yuke, famous for his ink bamboo painting.

Wheel River

: Shaanxi province mountain valley where Wang Wei composed with Pei Di the famous Wheel River cycle of poems, also known as the

Wangchuan Ji

.