Nighttime Thoughts on the Mountain – a poem by Richard Collins

Nighttime Thoughts on the Mountain

After Du Fu

A soft wind combs the tall grass;
A white oak pierces the Tennessee sky;

Constellations drip silver rain on the meadow;
The moon rises over the domain’s plateau.  

Every song I’ve written remains unsung:
Aging poets like me should shut up and listen.

Yet I keep squawking, a mockingbird 
Stranded between shoveled earth and bright sky. 

Richard Collins is abbot of the New Orleans Zen Temple and lives in Sewanee, Tennessee, where he leads Stone Nest Zen Dojo. His recent poetry, which has been nominated for Best Spiritual Literature and a Pushcart Prize, appears in The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, MockingHeart Review, Pensive, Sho Poetry Journal, Think, Urthona: Buddhism and the Arts, and Willows Wept Review. His books include No Fear Zen (Hohm Press). a translation of Taisen Deshimaru’s Autobiography of a Zen Monk (Hohm Press), and In Search of the Hermaphrodite (Tough Poets Press, 2024).