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25 Mar 2024
William
Cordeiro
Full Moon
Apr 8th
Mar 10th
Poem in the
Manner of Du Fu
After poems by Du Fu such as
I walk beside the river
in a reverie.
Fritter
rushes down the road. Ever
eroding, transfigured,
the self’s
a constellation
of starlight and dust. Cool evening
comes. The ooze and jelly
in the current
slides. Things change.
A pink edge bellying
each cloud, its nimbus
rims a copper scroll
over tiptop leaves ...
It looks so heavenly—
then darkness
sinks through slanting levels.
One moment holds.
My face,
a stranger’s, stares back
from the glancing lace
of water,
where the careworn
moon appears.
My eyes
have vanished
into birds.
Behind the poem...
This is my attempt to capture the simplicity of style found in poems by Du Fu – a style that belies more profound ideas and emotions. It’s a poetry that combines grammatical complexity with shifting tonal nuance, yet speaks in a clear, seemingly straightforward way. I’ve imitated many of Du Fu’s motifs, such as the moon, the end of day, changefulness and river water.