Stasis #002
George Gott

The bamboo blooms
in the April wind
without hesitation:
Why should we dally
with fashion or pretense:
Why can't we be
without symbol or complex:
The whole world waits
for our embrace
in the temple of cosmos.

Stasis #004
George Gott

Most of us
can tell a lie.

And soon we learn
to live with it.

But Ah Kin au contraire
can tell two lies at once.

And lie number one
suggests that he is moral.

And lie number two
suggests that he is moral.

That's all there is to it.

The ancients have told us
there are seven types of virtue.

Ah Kin seems ignorant
of all of these.

While innocent birds sing
to the chorus of Ah Kin.

For Ah Kin has become
our earth and our heaven.

Mandata.

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George Gott recently retired from teaching at the University of Wisconsin—Superior, where he taught composition, creative writing, and literature for many years. More than five hundred of his poems have been published in the United States and in other countries. His poetry has been published in two chapbooks, Birds and Horses and Watching the River. In addition, he has a book of poetry entitled Here and There.

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