The Cracked Door – Daily Haikus
Reflections on life, the world, and society. Come explore with me.
Fine food costs hundreds of yuan
Fine delicacies on a plate of jade,
But I set my chopsticks down, unable to eat
My mind lost in a maze
I want to speak with the others,
To hear their stories and share adventures,
Not to sit here alone eating fine food
Context (if you’re interested):
Loosely based on “Hard is the Journey” by Li Bai, but I am not satisfied with it. I decided to write my own story in a poem that follows the story beats he set out. This is my first attempt to do that.
Tell me the way to
Heaven. This? Or that? Or, which?
What maze of paths!
Context (if you’re interested):
I wrote this to express feeling confounded when I see others so confident they know what is best for everyone.
Each night we’re apart,
I look up at the same moon
Like you smiling down
Context (if you’re interested):
Based “Water Melody Prelude: When Will the Bright Moon Appear?” By Su Shi. This is also a tribute to the Mid-Autumn Festival in China, although I am a few days late. (At the time of the festival, I was running around too much to be able to pause and write a poem about it.)
Come as you aren’t
I’ll be better able to
Make you how I want
(The story behind this poem; only read this part if you’d like to hear my personal story. Skip if it you’d prefer to glean your own meaning from the poem: I wrote this poem to help me vent my emotions about a specific dispute that happened. I am trying to convey how humans tend to event more and more arguments to solidify their initial impression in their mind even as more facts made it clear their position was wrong.)
For me, this poem is about conformity, about the pressure to be a blank slate so one can conform to how others want you to be.
From the moment I opened
My eyes in this world,
All I found was sorrow
Nowhere I belong.Why do they call me strange or wrong?
Maybe these colors
I see that they cannot
Are the tones of heaven.
Billions of sparkles
Star fire, just reaching us now
Endless genesis
Context (if you’re interested):
The universe is made up of a seemingly endless genesis from our perspective as we discover fresh stars that may be very old but their light is just reaching us now.
We were once two peas in a pod
But I grew in a few ways
You couldn’t match
As you returned to your real self overtime
I can no longer see how we fit together
Context (if you’re interested):
This is about how I and a significant other changed over the course of the relationship into different people.
The boundless Sea
Has no walls
It sprawls and sprawls
Until it can
No longer be
Context (if you’re interested):
The sea rushes to meet its boundary with nonexistence.
I endure
Swallowing my daydreams
Realizing there is no hope
In ever being understood
Context (if you’re interested):
This is an alternative version of my poem from yesterday with different themes.
I endure
Swallowing my daydreams
Dark pits in my throat that fuel
My long walk
Context (if you’re interested):
This is based on a poem my friend wrote.