1147. All Night - Zi Ye (Tzu Yeh) (3rd BCE)

Translated by Arthur Waley

All night I could not sleep

because of the moonlight on my bed.

I kept on hearing a voice calling:

Out of Nowhere, Nothing answered “Yes.”

1146. Half a Double Sonnet - Mary Jo Salter

For Ben

Their ordeal over, now the only trouble

was conveying somehow to a boy of three

that for a week or two he’d be seeing double.

Surely he wouldn’t recall the surgery

years later, but what about the psychic scars?

And so, when the patch come off, they bought the toy

he’d wanted most. He held it high “Two Cars!”

he cried; and drove himself from joy to joy.

Two baby sisters… One was enough of Clare,

but who could complain—conderring that another

woman had stepped forward to take care

of the girls, which left him all alone with Mother.

Victory! Even when he went to pee,

he was seconded in his virility.

1145. Grenimi AI - Winged Icarus

 

"Wow! I asked the Gemini AI to write a poem about the fall of Icarus

and this is what I got. "

On fragile wings, ambition soared,

Icarus, by Daedalus adored.

Escaped they did, from island's plight,

With feathers stitched and sunlit flight.

The world unfurled, a boundless blue,

But warnings wise, fell from his view.

Intoxicated, by heights unknown,

He chased the sun, upon its throne.

Too close he danced, with fiery might,

The waxen bond, could not withstand the light.

A silent scream, a feathery rain,

Icarus fell, a sun-kissed stain.

The waves embraced, his tragic fate,

A fleeting dream, sealed by his haste.

A lesson writ, in sky and sea,

Of hubris tamed, and mortality.