Taoist
SE friends of Lao-Tzu, those wise old men Dozing all day in lemon-silken robes, With tomes of beaten jade spread knee to knee, And pipe-stem, shining cold with silver, poised In steaming play, and still a finger free To dog the path of some forgotten pen; Almost their bee-sweet ancient words incline My mind to those old pagan ways, beloved By mandarins and mages, now but dust In drowsy pyramids.
What creed is this, Save that which those philosophers discussed In gold pavilions, over musky wine? "Repenting always of forgotten wrongs Will never bring thy heart to rest, for thought Repairs no whit of evil; rather cast Thy meditations in that utter void To which all human deeds resolve at last . . . ." So runs the burden of their thousand songs. Here, in this dark Star-Chamber of the soul, You stand arraigned,
O slayer of my heart . . . But I am tired of hoarding up the grist Of anger, and remember Lao-Tzu. Revenge is empty to the Taoist, And tears of penitence a futile toll!
Kenneth Slessor
Other author posts
Realities
(To the etchings of Norman Lindsay) Now the statues lean over each to each, and sing, Gravely in warm plaster turning; the hedges are dark The trees come suddenly to flower with moonlight, The water-gardens to glassy fire, and the night, the ...
Chessmen
NG on flags of ebony and pearl, My paladins are waiting Loops of smoke Stoop slowly from the coffee-cups, and curl In thin fantastic patterns down the room By cabinets of chinaware, to whirl With milky-blue tobacco-steam, and fume Together pa...
Crow Country
ED of station, noise alone, The crow's voice trembles down the sky As if this nitrous flange of stone Wept suddenly with such a cry; As if the rock found lips to sigh, The riven earth a mouth to moan; But we that hear them, stumbling by, Confuse t...
Snowdrops
The Snowdrop Girl in fields of snowdrops walks, Whiter than foam, deeper than waters flowing, Flakes of wild milk gone blowing, Snowing on cloudy stalks
