Monday, October 3, 2011

Philip Whalen




Hymnus Ad Patrem Sinensis


I praise those ancient Chinamen
Who left me a few words,
Usually a pointless joke or a silly question
A line of poetry drunkenly scrawled on the margin of a quick 
                                        splashed picture - bug, leaf,
                                        caricature of Teacher -
   on paper held together now by little more than ink
  & their own strength brushed momentarily over it.
Their world and several others since
Gone to hell in a handbasket, they know it -
Cheered as it whizzed by -
&conked out among the busted spring rain cherry blossom winejars
Happy to have saved us all.


Philip Whalen, 1963

3 comments:

  1. Loved this -- who knows where a haiku might end up?

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  2. This is the antidote for the crazy.
    Thank-you, Elizabeth.

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  3. oh, i've never read anything by him. i liked it a lot.

    ReplyDelete