"The thoughts I miss are not far away, as if they were my whole life" is interpreted as: The wanderer I miss is not far away, and it seems that we still get along with each other and comfort each other throughout my life.
From "Twenty-Four Poems: Calmness" written by Sikong Tu of the Tang Dynasty
The setting sun is clear in the green fir house.
Walking alone while taking off my scarf, I hear the sound of birds from time to time.
If the wild geese don’t come, the son will travel far away.
Thinking is not far away, as if it were a lifetime.
The sea breeze is clear and the clouds are green, and the moon is bright at night.
If there are good words, the river will flow.
About the author:
Sikong Tu (837-908) was a late Tang poet and poetry critic. The character means saint, and he calls himself Zhifeizi, and he is also called the layman who tolerates humiliation. His ancestral home is Linhuai (now southeast of Sixian County, Anhui). He moved with his family to Yu Township in Hezhong (now Yongji, Shanxi) since he was a child. In the tenth year of Xiantong's reign (869), Emperor Yizong of the Tang Dynasty took the examination and was promoted to Jinshi. In the fourth year of Tianfu (904), Zhu Quanzhong summoned him as the Minister of Rites. Sikong Tu pretended to be old and inactive and was released. In the second year of Kaiping in the Later Liang Dynasty (908), Emperor Ai of the Tang Dynasty was killed. He went on a hunger strike and died at the age of seventy-two. Sikong Tu's achievements mainly lie in poetry theory, and "Twenty-Four Poems" is an immortal work. "Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty" contains three volumes of poems.