Meeting Po Chu-i

(Chinese Poet 772-846)

by Ian Aitken

Never having been to China
I walked to the lake
to see if a heron was there.
Finding none, I returned
by the other path.
There I met a friend.
Po Chu-i had been thirteen months travelling.
I invited him to continue with me.
At my kitchen table
the coffee was quickly brewed,
and we faced each other
like the chess players
I’d hoped we be.