China and the West

Rexroth, Kenneth. The heart's garden, the garden's heart [ID D32231].
The Eve of Ch'ing Ming--Clear Bright,
A quail's breast sky and smoky hills,
The great bronze gong booms in the
Russet sunset. Late tonight
It will rain. Tomorrow will
Be clear and cool once more. One more
Clear, bright day in this floating life.

Morgan Gibson : In Rexroth's fifth and last long philosophical poem, the aging poet wanders through Japanese forests at the beginning of summer recalling Lao-tzu's imagery of the Tao : 'The valley's soul is deathless. It is called the dark woman. The dark woman is the gate. To the root of heaven and earth'. He feels towards the Tao like a man who has lost the woman he loves. But since illumination is like the innocence of fish who do not know that they live in water, the desire for it is self-defeating. He loses himself in intermingling sensations of bamboo leaves, gold fish, waterfalls, birds, birdlike voices of women, temple bells, meadows, lakes, the perfume of flowers and forests. The Tao, the radiant harmony of life, both immanent and transcendent, speaks in his pulse and breathing.
The language of this poem is as sensuous as the perceptions that it conveys. No other poem of Rexroth's is more musical.