Eating Bamboo Shoots
My new province is a land of bamboo-groves:
Their shoots in spring fill the valleys and hills.
The mountain woodman cuts an armful of them
And brings them down to sell at the early market.
Things are cheap in proportion as they are common;
For two farthings, I buy a whole bundle.
I put the shoots in a great earthen pot
And heat them up along with boiling rice.
The purple nodules broken – like an old brocade;
The white skin opened – like new pearls.
Now every day I eat them recklessly;
For a long time I have not touched meat.
All the time I was living at Lo-yang
They could not give me enough to suit my taste,
Now I can have as many shoots as I please;
For each breath of the south-wind makes a new bamboo
Related quotes
The Bamboo
kyoto bamboo shoots
i bite into every inch
of spring
poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Warbler Sings
the warbler sings
among new shoots of bamboo
of coming old age
poem by Matsuo Basho
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Mother is the root
.
Mother is the root.
Children are the shoots.
Roots take care of the shoots.
Shoots have no care for roots.
They have other things to care.
Roots don’t bother. Can mother?
17.07.2006
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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Planting Bamboos
Unrewarded, my will to serve the State;
At my closed door autumn grasses grow.
What could I do to ease a rustic heart?
I planted bamboo, more than a hundred shoots.
When I see their beauty, as they grow by the stream-side,
I feel again as though I lived in the hills,
And many a time on public holidays
Round their railing I walk till night comes.
Do not say that their roots are still weak,
Do not say that their shade is still small;
Already I feel that both in garden and house
Day by day a fresher air moves.
But most I love, lying near the window-side,
to hear in their branches the sound of the autumn-wind.
Spring
Frost-locked all the winter,
Seeds, and roots, and stones of fruits,
What shall make their sap ascend
That they may put forth shoots?
Tips of tender green,
Leaf, or blade, or sheath;
Telling of the hidden life
That breaks forth underneath,
Life nursed in its grave by Death.
Blows the thaw-wind pleasantly,
Drips the soaking rain,
By fits looks down the waking sun:
Young grass springs on the plain;
Young leaves clothe early hedgerow trees;
Seeds, and roots, and stones of fruits,
Swollen with sap put forth their shoots;
Curled-headed ferns sprout in the lane;
Birds sing and pair again.
There is no time like Spring,
When life's alive in everything,
Before new nestlings sing,
Before cleft swallows speed their journey back
Along the trackless track -
God guides their wing,
He spreads their table that they nothing lack, -
Before the daisy grows a common flower
Before the sun has power
To scorch the world up in his noontide hour.
There is no time like Spring,
Like Spring that passes by;
There is no life like Spring-life born to die, -
Piercing the sod,
Clothing the uncouth clod,
Hatched in the nest,
Fledged on the windy bough,
Strong on the wing:
There is no time like Spring that passes by,
Now newly born, and now
Hastening to die.
poem by Christina Georgina Rossetti
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The Birth of Spring (Constanza)
April graces us with showers,
As cold snows melt, their wintry scene
Is changed to many shades of green.
From tender shoots, soon, Spring flowers.
Apollo's face is golden fair....
The scent of spring is in the air.
As blossoms float down from bowers
When gusts of April breezes blow,
They spread below like golden snow.
I delight and watch for hours,
For truly at this time of year
I feel God's presence dwelling here.
Blessed and touched by divine powers.
The joy of springtime here on Earth
Is felt with every flower's birth.
April graces us with showers,
From tender shoots, soon, Spring flowers.
As blossoms float down from bowers
I delight and watch for hours,
Blessed and touched by divine powers.
poem by Connie Marcum Wong
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Let The Old Know
Roots die hard for shoots.
Shoots yield to flowers.
Flowers succumb to seeds.
Seeds die to give seedlings.
They are happy to do.
The old may know of this.
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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Oriental Spring Express
Warm humidity blows and whirls.
Rain flows.
Koto plunks.
Organ harmony oozes.
Umbrellas pop.
Diamonds still.
Mountains haze and mist.
Birds fly back and forth.
Bamboo Prince shoots.
Japan quietly shines.
Lover's Gifts XVI: She Dwelt Here by the Pool
She dwelt here by the pool with its landing-stairs in ruins. Many
an evening she had watched the moon made dizzy by the shaking of
bamboo leaves, and on many a rainy day the smell of the wet earth
had come to her over the young shoots of rice.
Her pet name is known here among those date-palm groves and
in the courtyards where girls sit and talk while stitching their
winter quilts. The water in this pool keeps in its depth the memory
of her swimming limbs, and her wet feet had left their marks, day
after day, on the footpath leading to the village.
The women who come to-day with their vessels to the water have
all seen her smile over simple jests, and the old peasant, taking
his bullocks to their bath, used to stop at her door every day to
greet her.
Many a sailing-boat passes by this village; many a traveller
takes rest beneath that banyan tree; the ferry-boat crosses to
yonder ford carrying crowds to the market; but they never notice
this spot by the village road, near the pool with its ruined
landing-stairs,-where dwelt she whom I love.
poem by Rabindranath Tagore
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Ben
Verse 1:
I’m sitting in my room thinking about the times that weren’t so bad
When you were here with the family
It was like you were the person who listened, the kind one
Always knew the right thing to stand up for no matter the cause or cost
Chorus:
The pain shoots through me every time I start to think or talk about your memory
Just because the way you were taken was so unnecessary
So Ben this one is for you
The family we miss you it’s like
The pain could never end
But together we can get through this
And keep your memory alive
Verse 2:
The many things run through my head
That the fact if you were here still today
Things could be different, it seemed
Like you were the part that kept things together
When you went things fell apart
Chorus:
The pain shoots through me every time I start to think or talk about your memory
Just because the way you were taken was so unnecessary
So Ben this one is for you
The family we miss you it’s like
The pain could never end
But together we can get through this
And keep your memory alive
Verse 3:
The feelings cut deep like a knife
Through all of this I’m still here
To keep your memory alive, I shall remember you for the good
Not the last memories, the grievance just wont pass
But thanks to the support of many certain friends I can still pull through.
Chorus:
The pain shoots through me every time I start to think or talk about your memory
Just because the way you were taken was so unnecessary
So Ben this one is for you
The family we miss you it’s like
The pain could never end
But together we can get through this
And keep your memory alive
In memory of Ben Chantler 1981-2006
poem by Shane Cannon
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April
'T is the noon of the spring-time, yet never a bird
In the wind-shaken elm or the maple is heard;
For green meadow-grasses wide levels of snow,
And blowing of drifts where the crocus should blow;
Where wind-flower and violet, amber and white,
On south-sloping brooksides should smile in the light,
O'er the cold winter-beds of their late-waking roots
The frosty flake eddies, the ice-crystal shoots;
And, longing for light, under wind-driven heaps,
Round the boles of the pine-wood the ground-laurel creeps,
Unkissed of the sunshine, unbaptized of showers,
With buds scarcely swelled, which should burst into flowers
We wait for thy coming, sweet wind of the south!
For the touch of thy light wings, the kiss of thy mouth;
For the yearly evangel thou bearest from God,
Resurrection and life to the graves of the sod!
Up our long river-valley, for days, have not ceased
The wail and the shriek of the bitter northeast,
Raw and chill, as if winnowed through ices and snow,
All the way from the land of the wild Esquimau,
Until all our dreams of the land of the blest,
Like that red hunter's, turn to the sunny southwest.
O soul of the spring-time, its light and its breath,
Bring warmth to this coldness, bring life to this death;
Renew the great miracle; let us behold
The stone from the mouth of the sepulchre rolled,
And Nature, like Lazarus, rise, as of old!
Let our faith, which in darkness and coldness has lain,
Revive with the warmth and the brightness again,
And in blooming of flower and budding of tree
The symbols and types of our destiny see;
The life of the spring-time, the life of the whole,
And, as sun to the sleeping earth, love to the soul!
poem by John Greenleaf Whittier
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Plantation Boy
Lots of people walk about proud and free
Lift up your head start looking around
Theres a brandnew feeling of liberty
Like a clear bell thats starting to sound
Plantation boy
Cmon and get going
Yesterdays chains have broken in two
Plantation boy
The new move is growing
Reaching the hills and the valleys and you
Plantation boy
Plantation boy
Lots of smiling faces for you to meet
So many hands to help you along
Just shake off the mud that weighs down your feet
If you stand tall you just cant go wrong
Plantation boy
Cmon and get going
Yesterdays chains have broken in two
Plantation boy
The new move is growing
Reaching the hills, the valleys and you
Plantation boy
Plantation boy
Years of picking cotton for little pay
Living alone in some wooden shack
Sweating in the heat of a summers day
This is all over, you wont come back
Plantation boy
Cmon and get going
Yesterdays chains have broken in two
Plantation boy
The new move is growing
Reaching the hills, the valleys and you
Plantation boy
Plantation boy
Plantation boy
Cmon and get going
Yesterdays chains have broken in two
Plantation boy
The new move is growing
Reaching the hills, the valleys and you
Plantation boy
Plantation boy
Plantation boy
Plantation boy
Wherever you may go
Reaching the hills and the valleys and you...
Reaching the hills and the valleys and you...
Reaching the hills and the valleys and you...
Reaching the hills and the valleys and you...
Reaching the hills and the valleys and you...
Reaching the hills and the valleys and you...
Reaching the hills and the valleys and you...
Reaching the hills and the valleys and you...
Reaching the hills and the valleys and you...
Reaching the hills and the valleys and you...
Reaching the hills and the valleys and you...
song performed by by Boney M.
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Colours of Spring 2008 Version
The gracious orange tree's green shoots do grow
to greet blue sky with golden sun a-glow.
The vernal verdant shoots of Spring now sprout
through soft brown earth, here, there, and round about.
Dawn Daffodils, and Buttercups yellow,
red Rose and amber in alternate rows,
Violets, Lilacs, Pinks are pushing out,
divinity of Nature none may doubt.
(23 March 1975)
poem by Jonathan Robin
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Bamboo Tunes and Cat Eyed Girl
In the murmuring evenings,
Cat eyed girl, worn ear-rings,
Stands by bamboo cluster,
Putting down pots of water.
Gilded bamboos sing and sway,
And the tired path becomes gay.
Bamboo hearts throb ever;
Unnamed tunes cease never.
Her bamboo throes resounded
In the gloomy wind unbounded.
Melodies of earth does shower
On her soul that does hover.
Finger tip of the wind brings
Sweet tunes from bamboo strings.
Music enters her inner grove,
Where the forlorn dreams rove.
Cuddled bamboos swing and say
What the lovers failed to say.
Never dying natural music
So keeps her hopes rhythmic.
poem by Fabiyas M V
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On the Lake (1)
Mountain monks facing chess sit
Board on bamboo dark quiet
Shine bamboo no person see
Sometimes hear down chess piece sound
Two monks sit facing, playing chess on the mountain,
The bamboo shadow on the board is dark and clear.
Not a person sees the bamboo's shadow,
One sometimes hears the pieces being moved.
My Old Hometown
Long before it became a city-like,
The chirps of the crickets at night,
And the crows of the roosters at dawn,
Sunrise, mid-sun, sunset,
Is how we told time
In this place now I call it
My old hometown
So before sunrise melts the morning mists,
‘Till it sets across the mountains,
We farmed as hard as we could,
But no matter how poor life is,
This place was my paradise.
Like the crowns of acacia and tamarind trees
And the arcs of bamboo poles
That looks like a tunnel to the south
Made this place enchanting to my memories,
Down by the valley onward to the northwest,
Along the cradle of its crystal lake,
With choir of birds and scents of ilang-ilang,
There! It remained the life of my childhood.
Banog Norte is a small barrio of Bani in the province of Pangasinan, Philippines. Now, I also call it ‘the corner-end part of the world’ simply because it lies onto the very western tip of Central Luzon.
Amid the rice field, where our small house made of cogon roof, bamboo walls, and bamboo floors, I was born [here] not knowing how mother looked like. Thereby, the chirps of the crickets at night were my lullabies.
During my childhood, there was nothing more I enjoyed than getting soaked in the carabaos’ puddle or ride on their back elsewhere. Swimming was beyond my playful interest; thus, the choir of birds, who sang to the river, and the scents of rice straws in me have all captured in my solitude.
poem by Efren Petalver Carranza
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Spring
See how new green shoots
and branches and leaves
and flowers appear
and the green grass
rises everywhere,
the gods had set a part
of Eden here.
Hear the birds
sing and cheer
and see them fly past
and follow the white-hot sun
while the rays comes to stay
for a longer time.
Smell the first rain
and wild flowers
in the fields
and get thrilled
by the sweet scent
that every flower brings
Abide with me
as the trees dress fit
for a royal wedding
and new life
appears from where it hides
and realise that Spring
is a living thing.
poem by Gert Strydom
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Without shoots
You and your parents are
Shoot and roots of a seedling.
You and your children are
Root and shoots of a seedling.
Connectivity between
Root and shoot is original.
So is the bonding between
Shoots and root as natural.
Husband and wife are
Scion and stock of a graft.
Connectivity between
Scion and stock is artificial.
So is the bonding between
Husband and wife.
The old couple will know this.
Being childless is the one without shoots.
28.12.2011
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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This Green City
Someone's evil laugh shoots down my back
Shapeless and ageing we start to run
Through the tangle of your broken words
This cheap impulse falls so dry
In the maze. i burn down
Turn...you turn my skin around
Wishing my eyes could look down
Down on me...
Stairs fall like jewels
As we near the door
You fold through my neck
And arms like crystal
So black, so black with charm and breath
We turn to face the dying sun...
This green city rains down on me
This green city rains down on me
song performed by by Cure
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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