“What Is the Price of Those Chintz Curtains?”

Mt. Fuji, Japan viewed from Chureito Pagoda in the autumn.

For most, true poetry seems too like art,

Those other arts.  The artifice is not

What weakens it.  They don’t object to heart

In verse.  The problem is that it is nought

(Or less than) in its power to make things change

Much less to make real money.  Bamboo’s shade

Moves over temple steps.  Its movement’s range

Does not cleanse them of dust.  Rhymes don’t invade

Reality.  At night the moon moves on

The surface of the pond and even glows

Down in it.  But with coming of the dawn

No moon is there.  Its presence simply goes.

  Most want the feel of gold in hand.  Mere ring

     Of beauty from the bell is not their thing.

~ Phillip Whidden