HERBS, HANDS and HEALING

SOME SELL CUPS OF TEA
PRESCRIBED FOR HEALTH.

SOME DRINK IMMORTAL BUDS
OR EYEBROWS OF LONGEVITY.

SOME GO FOR SMOKED BANCHA TWIGS
OR FOR KUKICHA
CHILLED WITH
APPLE JUICE
IN SUMMER HEAT.

SOME 
LIKE ELDER BROTHER
APPRECIATE  EARL GREY
WITH ITS TINGE OF BERGAMOT
OR FOR A CEREMONY 
WITH WHISKED GREEN TEA.

NOT ME.

I'VE NO STATUS OR STANDING
BUT AM COUNTING
ON APPROVAL
FROM MICHAEL LONGLEY
"A FASTIDIOUS BREWER 
& TEA CONNOISSEUR"
FOR MY MARIMEKKO "POT"
FROM FINLAND
NOT JAPAN
AS YOU MIGHT THINK.

I'M  SITTING HERE
DRINKING-IN THE EVENING PEACE.
THREE LONG SIPS
THEN TURN
AND ADMIRE THIS CUP
NO CHANCE OF ZEN
UNTIL IT IS EMPTY.

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Golden GOJI Hermitage
September 2010/January 2013

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THE MARY OLIVER POEM - (24 November 2008)

The little Mouse
face-to-face
with the Grizzly
on the cover of
Mary Oliver's book
reminds me of
the little one
seen on my walk
t'other day
stretched-out
on Radipole's
outer perimeter path
a red bead of blood
like a regurgitated
small redcurrant
seemingly caught
in its mouth.
Mary would've stopped and
taken it home
for a ceremonial burial
in her garden
under an apple
or damson tree.
She would have taken 
the time
even if she were
being stalked by
a Grizzly
to stoop and
carry it home.
i did not.
That is what separates
great poets from
the also-rans.

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SOME GIRLS

1)

she was

not unlike

a spanish girl

sprawled there

on a boardwalk

in the sun

in her hipsters

bare midriff

deep belly-button

set in a sallow skin

&

on a hot july afternoon

sparks come alive in me

walking on Weymouth's sands

&

 after 35 years

i wish

i could remember

her name.

 

2)

awake all night

not touching you

an owl perched

near the open window

a bowl of chestnuts

to keep the spiders away

wondering how

to get into your arms

or was it just

a bad dream?

 

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(JULY 2005/AUGUST 2010/JANUARY 2013)

 

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TEN BOWLS after KAKUAN

i) Every day eating from empty bowl.
ii) Eat from bowl, become empty.
iii) Bowl of sustenance, eat evidence.
iv) Eat bowl before it eats you.
v) Bowl too good for fancy miso.
vi) Empty bowl, best bowl.
vii) Drop bowl, drop self.
viii) Empty bowl, a delusion.
ix) Regarding bowl, mind empties.
x) Bowl empty, mind empty.

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Golden GOJI Hermitage

 

January 2011

 

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40 copies printed 27/4/2011

 

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TEN TENETS & A KOAN FOR THE COOK

1. Cook your own life.
2. Cook today, not tomorrow.
3. Cook as if your life depends on it.
4. Cook mature, chunky miso instantly.
5. Cook without relying on ingredients.
6. Cook should also prepare loving words.
7. Cook bows for deeper flavour.
8. Cook everywhere, not just in kitchen.
9. Cook and cook until morning star appears.
10. Cook almost empty, eat-up now.

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K. What is the sound of one hand chopping?

 

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Golden GOJI Hermitage

25 . ii . 2011

 

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...the justlit guttering candleflame almost strobelike at the beginning of zazen this evening...Soon candle and i settledown together...slow and steady...the mind flickers...flickerings of my mother's eyelashes...against mine...against my cheeks...Was i the child?......Il me semble (it seems to me) that life is filled with such flickerings of memory...eye to eye...mother to child...gossamer flickerings on cheeks thru childhood...then and now...It seems to me...it seems to me (Il me semble...il me semble) that we sit a lifetime with these flickerings...these flickerings......

 

 

GOLDEN GOJI HERMITAGE - 3 JANUARY 2013

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Just sucking thru straw at carton of chocolate soya milk...Snapping between sips at oblivious passersby on this beautiful moistgrey afternoon...Sitting on a bench on Weymouth's esplanade, it's cloudygrey and a light mizzle starts to infuse the air and the girl on her bike is longgone...it's two o'clock...

 

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