a moon, worn as if it had been a shell

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