Stop red

Mountain Travel by Tang dynasty poet Du Mu

Far and high, cool mountain, pebble trail ascent.
White clouds, thick, have people's homes.
Stop the car, sit and admire the maple grove at dusk.
Frosted leaves are redder than February flowers. 

Chapter 12: Riverside

There have been 11 chapters but this final chapter is for those poems that didn't belong elsewhere. Also, though I am not good at couplets, because occasion demanded it, I have included some of mine. Just as "a poor broom is valued by its owner"*, I cannot bear to leave them out. All my children are in the United States, living in three different places: Brookings, SD; Richland, WA; and Riverside, CA. I and Diqing are older; we come to visit the U.S. We stayed in Riverside the longest because the climate is the best. And my elder son and Diqing's sister visited a lot.

*Bi zou zi zen - even a poor broom is precious to its owner: meaning even bad writing is valued by the author. 

Home-garden Flowers

No. 1
Spring light has arrived to the small garden's heart:
Poinsettia stem tips and leaves turn slowly red.
Outside the fence, willow branches sway without stop,
Blown comes the flower's message in several gusts of wind.

Fog

River South Spring by Tang dynasty poet Du Mu

Thousand miles: gales sing, green shines red
Waterside towns mountain villages bar flags flutter
Southern dynasties* four-hundred eighty temples
Several towers in the center of misting rain

*one of the emperors was Buddhist so he built hundreds of temples

Los Angeles Scenery

Evening dust or dark fog--hard to tell the difference
Waves crash traffic blares--heard everywhere
Roads climb bridges cross--car wheels
Oil vapors coal fumes--air warm
Inner city densely populated, sea of high rises
Suburbs new construction, houses like fish-scales
Vying for Los Angeles area settlements*
Smoke and billows, cranes and gulls flock

*In one area of L.A., there are hundreds of thousands of Chinese immigrants.