The Spike or Victoria University College Review 1931
Li Po
Li Po
Here within the murmur of the hidden brook
while tinted leaves are falling, falling through the
golden warmth of the sunlight,
let me meditate awhile
by this old sycamore
on one whose heart was tender as the petal
of a fragile plum-blossom;
in whose rare spirit merged
the exquisite delicacy of a half-blown lotus
with the stately firmness of a Tiding lord;
and who
behind the sheltering walls
of an old garden,
far from unrest and moth-like fluttering
around the dragon-blazoned lantern Fame,
sang of the loveliness of little things,
of jasmine and of bursting willow buds,
and waterlilies on a drowsy pond,
softly and happily
and crooningly
in fleeting songs,
as pure in spirit, and elusive,
as a twilight moonbeam on a sleeping rose.
H. G. C.