And now for something completely different

The poet Wu Men -- brought to my attention by a quotation on a packet of white tea.


Is this a lovely poem or what?

Ten thousand flowers in spring
the moon in autumn
a cool breeze in summer
snow in winter.

If your mind's not clouded
by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.


Wu Men

Lofoten Plog

Before the paint-brush dropped through the gaps in the pier, I got one:

Lofoten Poem

Strange Fruit

Key limes drop into the Arctic
fisherman’s palm, salty cod bodies
dry south-facing on poles
while gooseberries common as mangoes
ripen in a Northern garden.

Poets’ tongues are pens
tonight, as silence floods the rorbu
the way sea-fog rolls in
with no warning. Arguments evaporate
over beer and reindeer
balls! we say, to everything!
and Here’s to us.

Lofoten Poets

Among stockfish drying, poets wetting their throats and pens.

Plog at last