Saturday, December 29, 2018

"If it ought to be done, then do it: apply yourself strenuously. ...lax...spreads even more dust."
Dhammapada  22.313


So you've lept home

slept little

what you've
taught

ought
to be

also

Wednesday, December 19, 2018

n e t (s)



draped
 torn 
worn 
down 

after 
rounds of 
refuse 

record
empty












paper boats
float coracle

find bowls
in rivers




Friday, December 14, 2018

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

d r e a m

This woman is drunk. 

Her husband is unfaithful.

He flies planes,
rides motorcycles,
tumbles rocks,
brews beer.
Breathes into other women.

Under the sink, vodka's hidden among the cleaning supplies. 

Cupboarding her anger, she is slowly poisoning herself.

 In the dream, leave her sprawled on the clean kitchen floor.


Shauaihiyashizome

indigo
a delta of clay seeds
strung (wrapped)
around

Kikuji ware
that
plunging

emerges

inside pod shadows - earth

f i l m

s  u  t  r  a

w  a  t  e  r

(canoe)
(coracle)

p  o  e  t  r  y

p  a  p  e  r

black and white

the rain

washing

the river


Junkyo Oishi

[Spring Orchid]

"Bloom as a youth,
Flourish as an adult,
mature and wither naturally
without regret."

Yone Ohishi
Geisha name Tsumakichi


Oishi Junkyo
Ama-san
"Mother of the Disabled"

14 March 1888 Osaka
Eldest daughter of working class
Chuzo and Iwa Ohishi
who owned Funai-zusi
(a sushi restaurant)

look to Bukkoin Temple in
Tamashinaku Kyoto
sub- temple of
Kajuu-ji

Kaso-an, nearby,
has a museum about her

(1968-1980)

She:
printing
(copy of her memoir)
calligraphy
writing books
helping the handicapped

taught late to read and write

a bird uses its mouth to sustain itself

* Dr. Stuart Chandler ("The Pluralism Project")
is translating the memoirs of
Junkyo Ohishi
into English

He has written a book on Chinese Foguang.




Monday, November 26, 2018

no path this sky
no one outside

no thought
no thing

no round
no which



Sunday, November 25, 2018

sumi tsubo

Plumb string taut

Snap black.

Mark, cut.

What?

A century on
it still smells of ink.

Insect drafted lines on insect eaten wood.

Made buildings.
They stood, fell.

See?
What's left -  one thread, too.









found(ation)

there

sage bark shoe
willow bark seine

again

those

feet, fish
left to weft, woof, fill

they're

extensions of the plant, the hair
sifted, freezing air 
cold water
drawn  over, through and

where

underfoot
near river's edge
the warp
remains still

fort rock sandals 10,000 bce












Tuesday, November 20, 2018

Strangely, forgiveness never arises from the part of us that was actually wounded. The wounded self may be the part of us incapable of forgetting, and perhaps, not actually meant to forget, as if, like the foundational dynamics of the physiological immune system our psychological defenses must remember and organize against any future attacks — after all, the identity of the one who must forgive is actually founded on the very fact of having been wounded. 
Stranger still, it is that wounded, branded, un-forgetting part of us that eventually makes forgiveness an act of compassion rather than one of simple forgetting. To forgive is to assume a larger identity than the person who was first hurt, to mature and bring to fruition an identity that can put its arm, not only around the afflicted one within but also around the memories seared within us by the original blow and through a kind of psychological virtuosity, extend our understanding to one who first delivered it. Forgiveness is a skill, a way of preserving clarity, sanity and generosity in an individual life, a beautiful way of shaping the mind to a future we want for ourselves; an admittance that if forgiveness comes through understanding, and if understanding is just a matter of time and application then we might as well begin forgiving right at the beginning of any drama rather than put ourselves through the full cycle of festering, incapacitation, reluctant healing and eventual blessing.
To forgive is to put oneself in a larger gravitational field of experience than the one that first seemed to hurt us. We reimagine ourselves in the light of our maturity and we reimagine the past in the light of our new identity, we allow ourselves to be gifted by a story larger than the story that first hurt us and left us bereft.
Maria Popova, poet David Whyte

loose


remove the

Monday, November 19, 2018

Thought
I ought
to write before sleep
seeps in

that tonight
under a clear umbrella
I watched the rain
fall

Sunday, November 18, 2018

Taiko no Tatsujin (太鼓の達人)


What sounds
in my sleep?

Oh yes.
Remembering Momoka's
arcade drumming
rolling thunder
zing
for a spirit thing
((魂ゲージ tamashii geeji)
or even better
scores
a note-lit
truth
flitting
playing past  the target
(ノルマ noruma)
like gnats
on fire


Yes.
Drums have light in them,
and thunder.
Wonder what
sounds
me as she
to rhythm flight?

The sounds in my sleep
keep returning.

What plays
pounding
as I dream?



Taiko no tatsujin arcade machine.jpg

Thursday, November 15, 2018

no cups
said the table
will top me
same, said the mount
to the mountain

both showing a side
where
there's room
for improvement


Wednesday, November 14, 2018

It isn't disappointment that makes you strong
but recovery from it.

Expand, adapt the process of
of forgiving
from without
to within.

Inside,
find
where first signs
of stricken
produced
a why.

For instance,
why your father
forged
himself iron,
unforgiving,
when he
could have
stood
sword sentinel,
or why
your mother returned
her grief to you,
a petition
for silence
placed in your hands.

They couldn't save you.

Some years
you will forget
their birthdays,
a slippage
righted quickly.
It isn't this forgetting
that makes you
stronger
but the recovery of
these  two
you knew
as joy and sorrow.
Memory is
your guardian triumphant:
you its
declaration of resistance
that read,
says

I survived.




Tuesday, November 13, 2018

prehistoric miniature clay pot Abbots Farm NJ USA (Kayla Kraft)



AE98089_11

Saturday, November 10, 2018

野良の遺徳に (to the village of nara) - (あき) 秋


near the temple beach
deer the size of chestnuts
feed on fallen persimmons

ラクダ

one lump
two
you've
seen them 
in a zoo
but you
haven't
seen 
them
at night
the
white 
ones
like stars
that appear
without
shadows
in
the empty quarter.



الربع الخالي‎, 
The Rub' al Khali
the empty quarter
Saudi Arabia's southern desert

にけし (an old doll)


My head squeaks,she said,as redpetalsfelluponherautumnbody.
Her cat nose?
It'safloatin abrownwaterface.




こけし









さんしゅsanshu yu山茱萸
cornus officinalisAsiatic dogwoodcornelian cherry
櫻井 所持 さくらい しょじ
なるに
食い致死と棚一の鳥居八思惟し白木寺らし
Kui chishi to tana ichinotorii hachi shiyui shi shiraki terarashi
Eating lethal and shelf one torii I think and Shiraki temple appearance








た け や ふ や け た
tahayafuyahata

t h e   b a m b o o   f o r e s t   i  s   b u  r n e d

Thursday, November 8, 2018

Tuesday, November 6, 2018

ヤベ

ヤベ

"The Way - All processes are out of my control. When one sees this with understanding, then one is disillusioned with the things of suffering.This is the Path of Purification."
Dhammapada  20.279



new moon

some days
now alone
hone insight
waiting -
a
difficult
action,
to
take
nothing

Sunday, October 28, 2018

moon gibbous  -  "inflowing thoughts come to an end"


appears in dreams
an animal grave

they've thrown
these dead bones
for centuries

as the oracle

advises

children find them
after
pretend to read them

is it really any worse a prophecy ?





Sunday, October 21, 2018

..When one meditates on the constituent elements of existence, One experiences joy and rapture. It is immortality for those of
discrimination.
- 25.374 Dhammapada



(waxing gibbous)

Monday, October 15, 2018


At two
in the morning
she
staggers
down
the street
hesitates
a moment
continues
weeping
until
barely
audible
her
cries
are
overlain
by
a dog's sharp
yipe
of pain.






how
what's
steeped in
strains out

see
with a
green tea
mind



Sunday, October 14, 2018

day's dark done


Walked
saw
children

found
saints
(latter day)
have a place here
a street address

Do
children and saints
learn
Japanese
quickly

count
kanji
one two three
thousand?

I make bowled boats
coracles
from wood pulp clay
they
may not float
these boats
for children
and saints.

Saints
say
we can change into them after death
after our day's
dark, is
done

but
winning
over
sinning
doesn't matter

here

where
we're moored
and tired

even for saints
it's
time for bed.



Saturday, October 13, 2018

postscript (painting)


as 
of 
af Klimt
a
spiritual
mediation -

to the
American
critic
who said she 
wasn't

 "...any more interested in the particulars of "
her  "belief systems than 
the mysticism" 

of 
Agnes Martin 
or

" the numerical systems and Mayan hieroglyphs" 

of
 Alfred Jensen
so

ignoring
charged space
right there
in the eye.

An end result

could be
she sees

american pragmatism w/o James

a Shaker table
without the
rattled soul.

Free to do so.

Go ahead and look. 

I can't go there 
where 
empty's
omitted.





falling down

Old houses disappear
under green
and gross neglect.
Note
here
homes
die from rot
insects
earth tremors
the sea.
To tear down
makes ground
more valuable
so they stay
shuttered,
standing,
aslant.

Kuras,
that is
the storehouses
of grain and goods
not wood,
stone sturdy and rarer,
remain longer,
repurposed.

Farmers
keep
plastic,
metal
until
they brittle, rust
beyond roping
and riveted repair.
Their field economy
extends to
buildings
which are
bundled,
broken debris
seeking
employment.

What can be saved?
Houses and storerooms,
farms and fields
will once again flood,
decay
rivaling
city
ruin,
woodland
loss.

Under
slowly rising seas
we remember things
always fall down
around us -
never
long
before
that fact
reasserts itself.

s e v e n h o l y f e a r s




1
the jewel -
small fears
that necklace,
brooch-fastened,
or pierced ear
ordinary,
reliably
present


2

the flush -
you just enough
axially off,
wobbling
indeterminately


3

the flange -
terminal
rib, collar or rim,
smells of hypocrisy
held in


4
the drum -
vigilant,
animal longing,
an incessantly
hungry hole



5
the veil -
through which all women
sense all things
that
define
surround


6
the candle -
that illuminates
but never warns,
the cave companion
enticement


7
the word -
abused
relocks
the box
fled from,
too late








Friday, October 12, 2018

"Let go of the past, let go of the future, and let go of what is in between, transcending the things of time. With your mind free in every direction, you will not return to birth and aging."
- 24.348 Dhammapada

Tuesday, October 9, 2018


Awakening
is this -
heaving up
just enough
through
confusion
to fall with
a thud
into
time.


.

Monday, October 8, 2018


もくぎょ








An aging Cezanne saw clearly that the space between thought and thing, for him between himself and a mountain, was spiritually charged.

I respect anyone who wanders such spaces with intention and intensity. The surface ripples such connections cause!


last
first
still
Can a truth be filled with soft bone pulp, regenerate?
Her mouth lost secrets
an  abscess
an absence

...enduring undisturbed criticism, ill-treatment and bonds, strong in patience, that patience her power.
- 26.399 Dhammapada



night poem

big green noon
in room
overhead
overheard
this word

soon.

Thursday, October 4, 2018

jewelry covered stupa
string of pearls
circular mantras of gold and diamond
a sapphire
ruby
opal echoing moon
soon this stupa
imbedded
takes wing
it's a thing that
ascends
as high as
as high as


When  bad deeds are covered over by good ones,  that person illuminates the world, like a moon breaking away from a cloud.
- 13.173 Dhammapada



the persistence of small
the let loose
the left out
remain




Monday, October 1, 2018

Sunday, September 30, 2018

quiet
crickets
hinoki
smell
a car
a storm
passes
the wind
I awake
but no mind
tomorrow is here
voiced
unvoiced

mahjong tiles solitaire

unless they are outside
choices
may be blocked
unseen
no match for expansion

leave openings

forecast
change
to gain
momentum

A poor person makes their wealth by means of creativity.
Musa Dagdiviren

Saturday, September 29, 2018

Flow could be
as  signature,
as meme
or trope.
cupped and drank -
an
infinitely
renewable
you.

Friday, September 28, 2018

waking from a dream

first lisp

cloud clots

knot them.

now
a
new
skein

unfurl
purl

knit
stitch
stop

here




Thursday, September 27, 2018

...By not meeting fools, one could be happy all the time.

- 15.206 Dhammapada
Within
create rivers, lakes, seas -
stilled, smooth, tumbling or turbulent.
Flow green, expansive.
remain unharmed.
Distances, more than arms, are safe refuges.







Wednesday, September 26, 2018

note
her
32 teeth
or
personalities

chewing
real
into
pieces

how
much
is
enough

The child says
to her disease:

I love them.
...the good disciple themselves.
- 10.145 dhammpada

Jeong Kwan


among
plants
and
streams

you
wife
to
silence

childless
mother

stir the soy sauce

lift kim chee

see
life

for what it is



Monday, September 24, 2018

black ellipses
grey
they
hover
here
appear
behind
my eyes

Quercus myrsinifolia - コナラ シラカシ

collected ringed cupules - inspired a child to look at them































Quercus L. (コナラ)
Shirakashi (シラカシ, 白樫/白橿), bamboo-leaf oak
Sihra = white, Kashi = oak
→ the wood is white (the bark is black)

Life form: evergreen tall tree
Distribution: ... Japan (south to Fukushima Prefecture)
Habitat: in evergreen forests → climax species

Leaf: pale-white backside
Pollination: wind
Seed dispersal: gravity or cache by acorns
Utilization: street tree, wood, medicine (leaf)
Synonyms:

Cyclobalanopsis myrsinifolia (Blume) Oerst.

http://hosho.ees.hokudai.ac.jp/~tsuyu/top/plt/beech/quercus/myr.html
the greenbriar
beckons

see?

fruit

new shoots in autumn
(an Ainu medicinal)

along the track
separating
one Yabe from another

a woman
responds

see?

she
forages

leaves

berries
for
birds


s m i l a x



つきみ



old fruit sellers
sold 

nashi 
for 
300 yen.

Oh my god
I said

Another woman
turning

ehhhh

repeats

Oh my god

Our 

faces 
wide and bright 
as 
moons.


つきみ (うつきみ)




ベジつ
Benjitsu

かねつ
Kanetsu

Kangetsu no Yube
かんげつ の ゆべ


うさぎを作るもち


Usagi o tsukuru mochi


Otsukimi (Moon-Viewing)


満月
Mangetsu is a full moon

but this one
September 24th 

is Chuushuu no Meigetsu
(the harvest moon / 中秋の名月)

also called 

Potato Harvest Moon

In mid- autumn
(Chuushuu)
a great 
a marvelous moon
(Meigetsu)

is waiting


September 24.

...the moon on the evening of the 15th day of the 8th month is called the “Chushu Moon.” 

In Japan, it is also referred to as the “Imo-meigetsu” in connection with agricultural events. From ancient times, people in Japan used to serve taros on the Imo-meigetsu. 

The tradition of viewing the Chushu Moon is said to have been transmitted from China during the Heian Era. In addition, the 13th night of the 9th month in the luni-solar calendar is known as “the 13th Evening.” In Japan, it is traditional to also conduct moon viewing on that evening. 

The 13th Evening Moon is also called “the Latter Moon,” “the Mame-meigetsu,” or the “Kuri-meigetsu.” This year the 13th Evening falls on November 1.

More than a few people think, “We can see a beautiful moon during the Chushu Moon; and the Chushu Moon is the full moon.” But, September 24 is the Chushu Moon this year and September 25 is the full moon. So, the dates of the full moon and the Chushu Moon are one day apart. In fact, the dates of the full moon and the Chushu Moon are often different.

How does this happen? In the luni-solar calendar, the “first day” is the day including the moment when the Moon passes new phase. The Chushu Moon indicates the Moon on the 15th day of the 8th month in the luni-solar calendar.

This year, September 10, which includes the moment when the Moon passes new phase (3:01 a.m.), is the first day of the 8th month in the luni-solar calendar. Therefore, September 24 is the 15th day of the 8th month in the luni-solar calendar.

On the other hand, the full moon is defined astronomically by the positions of the Sun, the Earth, and the Moon. The full moon refers to the Moon when the Moon and the Sun are in opposite directions as seen from the Earth (the Moon is exposed to sunlight directly from the front so that seen from the Earth, the Moon looks round.) We will have the moment of full moon at 11:52 a.m. on September 25.

The dates of the Chushu Moon and full moon can be different. However, the Moon is very bright for several days before and after the full moon. So it should be impressive.