Editor’s note: In this week’s Poetry Corner we feature the work of David Budbill, who has had eight books of poetry published. He is also a playwright, novelist, gardener, blogger, children’s book author, and performance poet. Budbill’s honors include an Honorary Doctorate from New England College, an NEA fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He lives in the Vermont mountains with his wife, painter Lois Ebey.
You Ask Me Why
Li Po said,
You ask why I live
in these green mountains.
I got stuck here.
Too poor to move,
maybe too afraid to,
didn’t want to anyway,
thought maybe
there might be
something worthwhile here
someday,
if I could
stick it out.
That was forty years ago.
Little Poem Written
at Five O’Clock in the Morning
All this violence: wars and cruelties—
collective and individual—
carnage of all kinds,
now as always
back to the beginning of time.
Our kind endlessly slaughters itself;
its appetite for self-destruction is boundless.
Yet and still every day the sun rises,
white clouds roll across the sky,
vegetables get planted and grow,
and late in the afternoon someone
sits quietly with a cup of tea.
Happy Life
At my desk all morning.
In the woods all afternoon.
Headed home now through the yellow light.
Yang Wan-li said,
There’s enough to eat.
Who needs a lot of money?
I’ve led a happy life
doing what I want to do.
How could I be so lucky?
