Friday, June 28, 2013

bronze age

90% copper
10% tin


from a single mine
deep in England

a possible 26 million cuts

malachite
tines

green ground
smelted ore

bellows
breathing tempo

at the edge of
village
knowledge

casts of clay and

stone
sword
excalibur


Thursday, June 27, 2013

news


boundaries between the spirit world and the natural were permeable, and things like rocks, trees and water sources -- including caves -- "were places those boundaries could be crossed."

tasting 2.6 billion year old water
clear 
deep within the earth

a mala from fire
a tasbih from Yemen
the child gave her the rosary
and said

pray with me


Sunday, June 23, 2013

angelic mistakes

said roger lipsey
to

merton
who
drawing
knew

lax
reinhardt
suzuki

he
53

see
another mistake?

karma
god
guess

water
electricity
baptism
death

mountain monk

Think of the old married monk,
living in a hut on the mountain -
his thin wife,
fat little dog.
He came out for a half jar of candy,
and spoke only hangeul,
slowly, as one does
when
utterly incomprehensible to another.

We
left
something  small.

All
walked uphill,
through his garden of fruit trees and vegetables
smelling of shit, piss, and earth.

anonymous

was a 

geomancy

many drown in the north
where weather and religions meet
the earth is water
the sky has no air
stone is the only hope

a great mast within
tie yourself to it
plug your ears with duck down
don't
listen
to
the


a convergence of stones - baltic sea/ jeju island


history - a lecture on korean buddhism by frederick starr 1918

"we are told that in the year 378, as the result of the coming of these foreign (Buddhist) priests, the city of P'yeng-Yang was laid out as a great ship. To us this sounds strange. It is not easy for us to realize a city was regarded as a great ship and that a mast was erected in its midst, aparently in order that the sails of prosperity might waft the ship to good fortune and success. Outside the city were stone posts to which the ship was to be tied up, and for many years it was forbidden to dig wells in the city because it was feared that if a well were dug, the boa would spring a leak and the whole place would be foundered. ...I am not sure if such ideas are connected with buddhism, or whether they only form a part of that old gomantic philosophy whic has so greatly influenced Chins, Korea, and Japan through centuries....Old masts are scattered all over Korea, here and there, sometimes in quite inaccessible places; built of wood, they rise to a great height, and are sheathed with metal, which may bear an inscription and date. Many other places that P'yeng-Yang were thought of as great ships - temples, cities, entire valleys.

below from http://fengshui-harmony.net/blog/korean-geomancy-fengshui-korea/


In 1929 Japanese researcher Murayama Chijun collected 174 different names of geomantic landscapes in Korea. However, looking closer some names have not been recorded at the time, so the estimate must be even higher.
These personified landscape systems function to accumulate and manifest vital landscape to the occupier. Similar to Chinese fengshui the aim is to live in harmony with the surrounding and to enhance its own dwellings with an abundancy of auspicious qi. In Korea however, the geomantic landscapes are taken a step further.
In the geomantic landscape of a sailing boat for example, the Korean believe that to dig wells are equal to putting a  hole put into the bottom of the boat. So places declared as the geomantic landscape of a sailing boat hence do not allow people to dig wells for fresh-water supply but instead the people rely on rivers and lakes nearby which are often contaminated and not very clean.
In the opposite direction, if the landscape seems to be missing a sail mast or anchor, these are artificially created by the local people so that the geomantic landscape picture can be fully applied. The anchor for example is very important as otherwise the sailing boat and its auspicious qi could travel away.
If the landscape resembling a sailing boat features helm, sail mast and anchor the place is very auspicious. If it has none than the site is regarded as the boat being instable and it may capsize or sink.
An example for this type of landscape formation is Haeinsa Buddhist Temple in the slope of Kayasan Mountain.
Haeinsa Temple in Korea
The ecological links concerned with this landscape image are as follows:
  • no digging of wells (equals a hole in the boat, so it would sink)
  • restricted numbers of dwellers (otherwise the boat would sink or capsize)
  • providing a mast (by erecting a mast)
  • floating the boat in water (by creating a water feature if it is not naturally given by a lake or river)
  • stabilising the boat
  • anchoring the boat (as otherwise it might move to another area)
Hence the idea of the geomantic landscape is very different in approach to the Chinese one. Even though there seems to be the one or other folk story on similarily described landscape in China, this type of approach to Feng Shui has not been recorded in any of the classics nor is it commonly used nowadays. It is a very specific Korean approach to geomancy.

Saturday, June 22, 2013

dream

Jebel Hafeet
1249 meters above
Oman and the Emirates
saw it from my window
dusty
magnificent
a dhow floated by mid-air
and a mullah called prayer
it's there
in the darkness
of my mind

woke to rain and a tribe
of chattering finches

rain


wettest in memory
this month
the roof is failing
an old, tired roof
exhausted by water

the roses are gluttons
greedy for the soaked soil

the air cool

a woman in India
scolded all
this is the inundation
the tipping point
of new and mighty
storms

we leave behind
the still
and enter a
torrent

monsoon festivals june india and ladkh

18.6
Dussehra
when the Ganga descended to earth
Varanasi
Haridwar
Rishikesh

18.19.6
Padmasambhava
birth of Tantric Buddhism
during Hemis
in Leh Ladkh

23.6
snake boats racing
Champakoolan Moolam
in Kerala

24.6
John baptizing
Sialim, northern Goa







Monday, June 17, 2013

daily practice three

do

blend
extend do

to you

and you

all involve

a balance of

daily practice two

108

half-lotus mud

find center of pool

earth

danjeon is dangerous

lungs float boats

nostrils fill sail

water exhalation



daily practice

he said

the force of

resolution

the white seed

familiarity

rejection

prayer

each

word
defilement
prostration
breath

contains
what will
continue


Saturday, June 15, 2013

said

you shouldn't be here now
ruined the seventh month

why didn't you go
far, far away?

let's write up an agreement
you can't live here
as you wish.

invisible.
that's your ticket.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

relict

kalpa


the cd


within a crystal stupa

Xoloitzcuintle


here
a splinter of  bone


x
marks the spot


(SHOH-loh-eets-KWEENT-lee)


where the dog god grew














to j re: a


in your village, j,
sun
radishes in the garden
reading poverty fireside
distilling eau de vie
clear
colorless
politics


you are in the middle j
tenth letter prose
closed earth
secure

"a"  has a half thumb, clawed,
broken fingers
missing earlobes

he wanders the dark
afraid of girls on bikes

he doesn't know
Panegoosho
Keats

beauty is truth he said
half dead
his alcohol cheap

"a" begins each infinity
large and small
sleepless
afraid

he's an artist too
like you
a minotaur
in europa













Thursday, June 6, 2013

1000 boats before a wedding

desire
one
vessel
at a time

years coming this
unexpectedness
a coupling
a coup
you
you
you

loved

for 1000 lives



mala notes

Fishing line's not right for this -
doesn't express
emptiness.

Saw
thread instead,
soft to wind
bind a wrist or room

Seeking soft and string -
is it black as
blackest light of the heart?

A start,
this remembering the heart.

Losing
empty and full
is wise, difficult  work.

Deceived by invisibility?
What exists is
shadow,
form,
a conversion between,
seen
now.


How?




Wednesday, June 5, 2013

a.m.

"flod" boats folding
bowing
rain
spoke to sister again

thought "what is fine I do not sign"

bought fishing line

for bronze mala beads
planted squash seeds

listened to
soil
water boil (yams, eggs for dinner)
men at work
Gerontius
lost in time
returned
after nine
minutes









Tuesday, June 4, 2013

alopecia

unrecognised

clarity

the wreck

A wreck - it's what we call
this mess of dead and dying,
thousands washed ashore -
after storm,
after life.
It's a strange reckoning,
this careful determinancy.
Will so many lost change things,
upset the balance,
require us
to save lives?


The last week in May saw 3500 dead Puffins wash ashore in Northern Britain. Such massive die-off is not unexpected during a hard spring, and scientists believe it will not affect the stability of the present Puffin population.  Dedicated to all those who have lost their lives in global conflict the last week of May 2013.

frog or toad

first I've seen
on the hosta leaf

striped, still

sister says
listen

does it sing?


mourning cloak - nymphalis antiopa (Linnaeus 1758)

their wings -



black


black

an irregular terminal brightness.


He
waiting 
estivated, overwintered,
first roused
alone. 


she
sunlit, sap fed,
hovers,
hesitant.


they
in this
egg encircled twig.



Monday, June 3, 2013