Yangshuo

Only once before

Have I wept seeing

A landscape swept before me

Twenty years ago Yosemite

Coursed tears down my cheeks

Waterfalls over stone cliffs

Now, across the Li river

Upstream from Yangshuo

Seven peaks like old fingers

Comb the night sky.

Since dusk I sit on my balcony

In the grasp of their beauty

Breath steams in the January frost

The darkness deepens over the forest

Dusk gold peaks faded now

To black silhouettes

Hardly a shade deeper than

The charcoal sky

Still I cannot go

Water sings in the night

Peaks whisper silently

And my cheeks are wet again

Li River flowing south

Towards Yangshuo