"A falcon hovers at the edge of the sky. Two gulls drift slowly up the river. Vulnerable while they ride the wind, they coast and glide with ease."

"Heaven's ways include the human: among a thousand sorrows, I stand alone."

"Saddened by the times I weep at the flowers tormented by the partings even the birds startle my heart."

"The ladle's cast aside, the cup not green, The stove still looks as if a fiery red. To many places, communications are broken, I sit, but cannot read my books for grief."

"How I long to lie down in some gully, alone and untrammeled! But I laugh at myself: an old madman growing older, growing madder."