Happy National Poetry Month, friends. Together we’ve made another trip around the sun - in moods of joy and moods of sadness - with the goodfellowship of poetry as our comfort and our guide.

This April, following as is does a particularly hate-filled March, let us celebrate poetry’s singular, transcendent power to illuminate - across time and borders - the human heart which beats in us all.

GOODFELLOWSHIP

A Fragment by Li Po (李白)

Hast thou not beheld the Yellow River

Which flows from Heaven?

It runs rapidly down and empties into the sea,

Nevermore to return.

Hast thou beheld the mirror in the hall

That reflects the grief of white hair?

In the morning it is like black silk,

In the evening it will be covered with snow.

While we are in the mood of joy,

Let us drink!

Let not the golden bottle be lonely,

Let us waste not the moon!

translated from the Chinese by Moon Kwan; Poetry Magazine, June 1921

Li Po (李白), also stylized in English as Li Bai, Li Bo, and Li Pai, was a Chinese poet who lived during the 8th century CE. Revered as one of the most important poets of the T’ang Dynasty, considered the golden age of Chinese poetry, his work influenced such modern American poets as Ezra Pound, James Wright, and Gary Snyder.