The Need for Actual Paintings

At the end of one
Of his homey poems,
Bai Juyi half-joked

That he looked so much
Like a cliched scene
Of a sleeping sage

Under his blanket
That there was no need
Now for actual

Paintings of old men.
What a fond idea,
That the actual

Is the hackneyed scene,
Imagination
Our lives never quite

Match successfully,
And maybe someday
We’ll approximate

What we’ve been seeing
And telling ourselves
So well we won’t need

To actually lie.
But then we might write
A real lie, like Bai.