You Stop To Point At The Moon In The Sky
Taigu Ryokan 1758 – 1831
You stop to point at the moon in the sky,
but the finger's blind unless the moon is shining.
One moon, one careless finger pointing --
are these two things or one?
The question is a pointer guiding
a novice from ignorance thick as fog.
Look deeper. The mystery calls and calls:
No moon, no finger -- nothing there at all.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 19 sec read
- 87 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XA AX AX XX |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 322 |
Words | 63 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 2, 2, 2 |
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"You Stop To Point At The Moon In The Sky" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/43517/you-stop-to-point-at-the-moon-in-the-sky>.
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