Beth Ames Swartz - The birds have vanished down the sky

The birds have vanished down the sky

Beth Ames Swartz
The birds have vanished down the sky
acrylic and paste on canvas
36 " x 48" (0.91m x 1.22m)
2006

Words in blue visible in painted frame

Li Bai (701 - 762 A.C.E., Chinese); also Romanized Li Po.
Zazen on the Mountain

The birds have vanished down the sky.
Now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains.

Seaton, Jerome P. and Maloney, Dennis, eds. A Drifting Boat, White Pine Press. All poems translated by Sam Hamill from Midnight Flute, Shambala Centaur Editions, 1994 (ISBN: 0877739137)

The poem also appears as Zazen on Ching-t'ing Mountain in the table of contents for The Poetry of Zen, edited and translated by Sam Hamill and J. P. Seaton. Boston: Shambala Publications, 1994 (ISBN 1-57062-863-7)