Advice: A Book of Poems

<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">TO LI T&#8217;AI PO</h2> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">They are writing poems to you:</div> <div class="verse">White devils who have not</div> <div class="verse">Smeared the distant yellow of your life</div> <div class="verse">Upon their skins.</div> <div class="verse">Faces where snob and harlequin</div> <div class="verse">Ogle each other in two, cold colours,</div> <div class="verse">White and red;</div> <div class="verse">Faces where middle age</div> <div class="verse">Sits, tearing a last gardenia;</div> <div class="verse">Faces continually cracked</div> <div class="verse">By the brittle larceny of age;</div> <div class="verse">Faces where emotions</div> <div class="verse">Stand disarmed within a calm mirage:</div> <div class="verse">These faces bend over paper</div> <div class="verse">And steal from you a little silver and red</div> <div class="verse">So that their lives may seem to bleed</div> <div class="verse">Under the prick of a flashing need.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">The old and tired smile</div> <div class="verse">Of one who spies too much within himself</div> <div class="verse">To spare the effort of a halting frown,</div> <div class="verse">Brushed its sceptre over your face.</div> <div class="verse">You gave kind eyes to your hope,</div> <div class="verse">Desiring it to grope unfearing</div> <div class="verse">Underneath the toppling mountain-tops.</div> <div class="verse">The wine you drank was a lake</div> <div class="verse">In which you splashed and found a vigour;</div> <div class="verse">The wine you drank was void of taste.</div> <div class="verse">Your yellow skin resembled</div> <div class="verse">A balanced docility</div> <div class="verse">Smiling at all things&mdash;even at itself&mdash;</div> <div class="verse">Li T&#8217;ai Po.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />