23 - Up Li-ding Mountain

Up Li-ding Mountain

Look up cross the hills

This early the moon’s still out, a pale disc high up

While the sun illuminates every inch the expanse beyond the trees

There ain’t no protection out in the open

You could freeze at night

Or flow out in the boiling day

The hillside speaks in accidental harmony

There is indeed a spirit that never sleeps or slumbers

Though Heaven and Earth weren’t made

Just like nothing this grand miraculous could be crafted

Help don’t come from nowhere else

But the chorus of birdcalls and insect songs and talk

These things must be taken all at once

They’ve brought up

Pot and cup, chair by chair

Everything you need for tea at the top of the mountain

Coming back down we hear the sounds of singing

As karaoke carries among the trees

It’s eight o’clock and just warming up


Rewrote parts of Psalm 121 after going hiking.