The poetry of impermanence, mindfulness, and joy

Credits

A. R. Ammons, “Continuing” and “In Memoriam Mae Noblitt” from A Coast of Trees. Copyright © 1981 by A. R. Ammons. “The City Limits” from The Selected Poems, Expanded Edition. Copyright © 1971 by A. R. Ammons. “Old Geezer” from Brink Road. Copyright © 1996 by A. R. Ammons. “Clarifications,” “Reflective,” and “Stills” from The Really Short Poems of A. R. Ammons. Copyright © 1990 by A. R. Ammons. All poems reprinted with the permission of W. W. Norton and Company, Inc.

Matsuo Bashō, “Wrapping the rice cakes” and “A cicada shell,” translated by Robert Hass, from The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson and Issa, edited and with an introduction by Robert Hass. Introduction and selection copyright © 1994 by Robert Hass. Unless otherwise noted, all translations copyright © 1994 by Robert Hass. Reprinted with the permission of HarperCollins Publishers. “Summer grasses” and “A field of cotton,” translated from the Japanese by Lucien Stryk and Takashi Ikemoto, from Zen Poetry: Let the Spring Breeze Enter. Copyright © 1995 by Lucien Stryk. Used by permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited.

Ellen Bass, “If You Knew” from The Human Line. Copyright © 2007 by Ellen Bass. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Copper Canyon Press, www.coppercanyonpress.org.

Elizabeth Bishop, “The Fish” and “Filling Station” from POEMS by Elizabeth Bishop. Copyright © 2011 by The Alice H. Methfessel Trust. Publisher’s Note and compilation copyright © 2011 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. Reprinted with the permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and of Chatto & Windus.

Bunan, “The moon’s the same old moon,” translated from the Japanese by Lucien Stryk and Takashi Ikemoto, from Zen Poetry: Let the Spring Breeze Enter. Copyright © 1995 by Lucien Stryk. Used by permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited.

Yosa Buson, “Coolness,” “My arm for a pillow,” and “The old man,” translated by Robert Hass, from The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson and Issa, edited and with an introduction by Robert Hass. Introduction and selection copyright © 1994 by Robert Hass. Unless otherwise noted, all translations copyright © 1994 by Robert Hass. Reprinted with the permission of HarperCollins Publishers. “Such a moon,” translated from the Japanese by Lucien Stryk and Takashi Ikemoto, from Zen Poetry: Let the Spring Breeze Enter. Copyright © 1995 by Lucien Stryk. Used by permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited.

Chuang Tzu, “The Joy of Fishes,” translated by Thomas Merton, from The Way of Chuang Tzu. Copyright © 1965 by The Abbey of Gethsemani. Reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

Billy Collins, “Shoveling Snow with Buddha” from Picnic, Lightning. Copyright © 1998 by Billy Collins. Reprinted with the permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press. “Aimless Love” from Nine Horses: Poems. Copyright © 2008 by Billy Collins. Reprinted with the permission of Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

Eihei Dōgen, “Waka on Impermanence” and “This slowly drifting cloud is pitiful,” translated by Lucien Stryk and Taigan Takayama, from Zen Poems of China and Japan. Copyright © 1973 by Lucien Stryk, Takashi Ikemoto, and Taigan Takayama. Used by permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited.

Jack Gilbert, “Getting Old,” “A Brief for the Defense,” and “Horses at Midnight without a Moon” from Collected Poems. Copyright © 2012 by Jack Gilbert. Reprinted with the permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

Old Shōju, “One look at plum blossoms,” translated by Lucien Stryk, Takashi Ikemoto, and Taigan Takayama, from Zen Poems of China and Japan. Copyright © 1973 by Lucien Stryk, Takashi Ikemoto, and Taigan Takayama. Used by permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited.

Andrea Hollander, “October 9, 1970” from Landscape with a Female Figure: Selected Poems 1982–2012. Copyright © 2013 by Andrea Hollander. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Autumn House Press, www.autumnhouse.org.

Kobayashi Issa, “The distant mountains” from The Poetry of Zen, edited by Sam Hamill and J. P. Seaton. Translations copyright © 2004 by Sam Hamill. Reprinted by arrangement with The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Shambhala Publications, Inc., www.shambhala.com. “Under cherry trees,” translated from the Japanese by Lucien Stryk and Takashi Ikemoto, from Zen Poetry: Let the Spring Breeze Enter. Copyright © 1995 by Lucien Stryk. Used by permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. “This world of dew,” “Mother I never knew,” “The man pulling radishes,” “I’m going to roll over,” “Children imitating cormorants,” and “Full moon” from The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson and Issa, edited and with an introduction by Robert Hass. Introduction and selection copyright © 1994 by Robert Hass. Unless otherwise noted, all translations copyright © 1994 by Robert Hass. Reprinted with the permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Anna Kamieńska, “I Don’t Know How a Day Flew By Us,” translated by David Curazon and Grazyna Drabik, from Astonishments. Copyright © 2008 by Anna Kamieńska. Reprinted with the permission of the translators and Paraclete Press.

Jack Kerouac, “In my medicine cabinet” from Book of Haikus by Jack Kerouac, edited by Regina Weinreich. Copyright © 2003 by The Estate of Stella Kerouac, John Sampas, Literary Representative. Used by permission of Penguin Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

Bill Knott, “Death” from Laugh at the End of the World: Collected Comic Poems 1969–1999. Copyright © 2000 by Bill Knott. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd., www.boaeditions.org.

Philip Larkin, “Days,” “Ambulances,” and “Here” from The Complete Poems of Philip Larkin, edited by Archie Burnett. Copyright © 2012 by The Estate of Philip Larkin. Reprinted with the permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux and of Faber and Faber Ltd.

D. H. Lawrence, “The White Horse” from The Complete Poems of D. H. Lawrence, edited by Vivian de Sola Pinto and F. Warren Roberts. Copyright © 1964, 1971 by Angelo Ravagli and C. M. Weekley, Executors of the Estate of Frieda Lawrence Ravagli. Reprinted with the permission of Viking Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

Denise Levertov, “Aware” from This Great Unknowing. Copyright © 1999 by The Denise Levertov Literary Trust, Paul A. Lacey and Valerie Trueblood Rapport, Co-Trustees. Reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

Li Po, “Watching a White Falcon Set Loose,” translated by David Hinton, from Mountain Home: The Wilderness Poetry of Ancient China. Copyright © 2002 by David Hinton. Reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. “Zazen on Ching-t’ing Mountain,” translated by Sam Hamill, from Crossing the Yellow River: Three Hundred Poems from the Chinese. Copyright © 2000 by Sam Hamill. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Tiger Bark Press, www.tigerbarkpress.com.

Bronisław Maj, “A Leaf,” translated by Czesław Miłosz and Robert Hass, from A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry. Translation copyright © 1996 by Czesław Miłosz. Reprinted with the permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Czesław Miłosz, “Encounter” from Bells in Winter, translated by the author and Lillian Vallee, by Czesław Miłosz. Copyright © 1974, 1977, 1978 by Czesław Miłosz. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers and of Carcanet Press Limited.

Marianne Moore, “What Are Years?” from The Collected Poems of Marianne Moore. Copyright © 1941 by Marianne Moore, renewed 1969 by Marianne Moore. All rights reserved. Reprinted with the permission of Scribner, a Division of Simon and Schuster, Inc.

Pablo Neruda, “Horses” from Extravagaria by Pablo Neruda, translated by Alastair Reid. Translation copyright © 1974 by Alastair Reid. Reprinted with the permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux and of Fundación Pablo Neruda. “Ode to My Socks” and “Ode to a Dead Carob Tree,” translated by Margaret Sayers Peden, from Selected Odes of Pablo Neruda. Copyright © 2011 by the Fundación Pablo Neruda. Reprinted with the permission of the University of California Press and of Fundación Pablo Neruda.

Alicia Ostriker, “Wrinkly Lady Dancer” from The Little Space: Poems Selected and New, 1968–1998. Copyright © 1998 by Alicia Suskin Ostriker. Reprinted with permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press.

Ron Padgett, “Dog,” “Words from the Front,” “Now You See It,” “Inaction of Shoes,” and “The Joke” from Collected Poems. Copyright © 1990, 2007, 2011, 2013 by Ron Padgett. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Coffee House Press, www.coffeehousepress.org.

Lucia Perillo, “After Reading The Tibetan Book of the Dead” and “I Could Name Some Names” from On the Spectrum of Possible Deaths. Copyright © 2012 by Lucia Perillo. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Copper Canyon Press, www.coppercanyonpress.org.

Fernando Pessoa, “Calm because I’m unknown,” translated by Richard Zenith, from A Little Larger Than the Entire Universe. Translation copyright © 2006 by Richard Zenith. Reprinted with the permission of Penguin Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

Po Chü-i, “Autumn Thoughts, Sent Far Away,” “After Quiet Joys at South Garden, Sent by P’ei Tu,” and “Li the Mountain Recluse Stays the Night on Our Boat,” translated by David Hinton, from Mountain Home: The Wilderness Poetry of Ancient China. Copyright © 2002 by David Hinton. Reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

Kenneth Rexroth, “Delia Rexroth” from Selected Poems. Copyright © 1950 by Kenneth Rexroth. “Empty Mirror” from The Collected Shorter Poems. Copyright © 1952 by Kenneth Rexroth. All poems reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

Yannis Ritsos, “January 4,” “January 21,” and “February 23” from Diaries of Exile by Yannis Ritsos. Copyright © 2013. Translated from the Greek by Karen Emmerich and Edmund Keeley. Reprinted with the permission of Archipelago Books.

Kay Ryan, “The Niagara River” from The Niagara River. Copyright © 2005 by Kay Ryan. Reprinted with the permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited.

Ryōkan, “The night is fresh and cool” and “Don’t say my hut has nothing to offer” from One Robe, One Bowl: The Zen Poetry of Ryōkan, translated and introduced by John Stevens. First edition, 1977, protected by copyright under the terms of the International Copyright Union. Reprinted by arrangement with The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boulder, Colorado, www.shambhala.com. “First days of spring — the sky” from The Enlightened Heart, translated by Stephen Mitchell. Copyright © 1993 by Stephen Mitchell. Reprinted with the permission of HarperCollins Publishers. “Nothing satisfies some appetites” from The Poetry of Zen, edited by Sam Hamill and J. P. Seaton. Translations copyright © 2004 by Sam Hamill. Reprinted by arrangement with The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Shambhala Publications, Inc., www.shambhala.com.

Saigyō, “‘Detached’ observer,” “Winter has withered everything,” and “Quiet mountain hut,” translated by William R. LeFleur, from Awesome Nightfall: The Life, Times and Poetry of Saigyō. Copyright © 2003 by William R. LeFleur. Reprinted with the permission of Wisdom Publications.

Han Shan, “The cloud road’s choked with deep mist,” translated by David Hinton, from Mountain Home: The Wilderness Poetry of Ancient China, copyright © 2002 by David Hinton. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. “Fields, a house, many mulberry trees, fine gardens!”; “They laugh at me, ‘Hey farm boy!’”; and “My old landlady,” translated by J. P. Seaton, from Cold Mountain Poems. Translations copyright © 2009 by J. P. Seaton. Reprinted by arrangement with The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Shambhala Publications, Inc., www.shambhala.com.

Tracy K. Smith, “Credulity” from The Body’s Question. Copyright © 2003 by Tracy K. Smith. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota, www.graywolfpress.org.

Ikkyū Sojun, “Void in Form” and “After ten years in the red-light district,” translated by Lucien Stryk and Taigan Takayama, from Zen Poems of China and Japan. Copyright © 1973 by Lucien Stryk, Takashi Ikemoto, and Taigan Takayama. Used by permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. “The moon is a house” from The Poetry of Zen, edited by Sam Hamill and J. P. Seaton. Translations copyright © 2004 by Sam Hamill. Reprinted by arrangement with The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Shambhala Publications, Inc., www.shambhala.com.

William Stafford, “Ask Me,” “It’s All Right,” and “Listening” from The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 1954, 1977, 1991, 1998 by William Stafford and the Estate of William Stafford. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota, www.graywolfpress.org.

Wallace Stevens, “The Snow Man” and “Study of Two Pears” from The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens. Copyright © 1954 by Wallace Stevens and copyright renewed 1982 by Holly Stevens. Reprinted with the permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, and with the permission of Faber and Faber Ltd.

Ruth Stone, “Train Ride” from In the Next Galaxy. Copyright © 2002 by Ruth Stone. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Copper Canyon Press, www.coppercanyonpress.org.

Su Tung-P’o, “12th Moon, 14th Sun . . . ,” and “With Mao and Fang . . . ,” translated by David Hinton, from Mountain Home: The Wilderness Poetry of Ancient China, copyright © 2002 by David Hinton. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

Anna Swir, “Our Two Silences,” “Priceless Gifts,” and “A Double Rapture,” translated by Czesław Miłosz and Leonard Nathan, from Talking to My Body. Copyright © 1996 by Czesław Miłosz and Leonard Nathan. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Copper Canyon Press, www.coppercanyonpress.org.

Wisława Szymborska, “Miracle Fair” and “No Title Required,” translated from the Polish by Stanisław Barańczak and Clare Cavanagh, from Poems New and Collected 1957–1997 by Wisława Szymborska. English translation copyright © 1998 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Tomas Tranströmer, “Death stoops over me,” translated by Robin Fulton, from New Collected Poems. Copyright © 2011 by Tomas Tranströmer. Reprinted with the permission of Bloodaxe Books. “Face to Face,” translated by Robin Fulton, from The Great Enigma. Copyright © 2004 by Tomas Tranströmer. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

Tu Fu, “Jade Flower Palace,” translated by Kenneth Rexroth, from One Hundred Poems from the Chinese. Copyright © 1971 by Kenneth Rexroth. Reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

Wei Ying-Wu, “In the Depths of West Mountain, Visiting the Master,” translated by David Hinton, from Mountain Home: The Wilderness Poetry of Ancient China. Copyright © 2002 by David Hinton. Reprinted with permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

William Carlos Williams, “Fine Work with Pitch and Copper,” “The Poor,” “The Widow’s Lament in Springtime,” and “To Waken an Old Lady” from The Collected Poems: Volume I, 1909–1939. Copyright © 1938 by New Directions Publishing Corp. Reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

Adam Zagajewski, “Auto Mirror,” translated by Czesław Miłosz, from A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry. Translation copyright © 1996 by Czesław Miłosz. Reprinted with the permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.