Between shores, mountains welcome me,
and in these river shallows, willows bow.

Sunlight jostles water cascading through
dragon’s whitewater scales. Why not stay?

I’ll ask this shrine-tower the way through
our surging and swelling world, and gaze

my whole life at this fluid mirror, seeing
thousands of ages lighting a Buddha face

♦

From The Selected Poems of Yang Wan-li © 2026, edited and translated by David Hinton. Reprinted in arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Boulder, CO


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