Nirvana
Nirvana
Poem
I am
A Clam!
Come learn of me
Unclouded peace and calm content,
Serene, supreme tranquility,
Where thoughtless dreams and dreamless thoughts are blent.
When the salt tide is rising to the flood,
In billows blue my placid pulp I lave;
And when it ebbs I slumber in the mud,
Content alike with ooze or crystal wave.
I do not shudder when in chowder stewed,
Nor when the Coney Islander engulfs me raw.
When in the church soup's dreary solitude
Alone I wander, do I shudder? Naw!
If jarring tempests beat upon my bed,
Or summer peace there be,
I do not care: as I have said,
All's one to me;
A Clam
I am.
Thanks and Acknowledgements
Image: Shellfish illustration from Bijutsu Sekai (Art World) (1893-1896) by Watanabe Seitei, a prominent Kacho-ga artist. Digitally enhanced by Rawpixel using their own original edition, cc.
