Sunday, August 7, 2011

Tea-bowl Tantra





Mt. Fuji for Natsuko drawn
On this teabowl, dripped upon.
What's got fire, land, and sea?
With soul, not ire, it stands for me.

Watered Shino, tinged and rosy,
To daughter Maya, a gift with poesy.
Why so pleasant drinking tea?
Life's great lesson is simplicity.

Little bats, from iron rich clay,
Nibbled my lip, they crawl'd through glaze.
This Vampire Cup was made from mud,
With vampire bats, for drinking blood!

Win this bowl without a fee,
Drink from a vessel, soul-ed by tea.
A humble bowl's modernity,
Took some soul, from a mystery.
The tiny pin prick on this bowl,
Defeats perfection, that has no soul.

To Lieutenant Edward Lash,
This cup got covered, by wood ash.
I'll give to you at Brandreth Lake,
Where tea we'll drink, and thanks we'll take.

On a lumpy cup our fire played,
Dumped in ash, and melted clay.
This project's soul, is friendship tea,
Not about objects, or pottery.
I've named this bowl for a moon that's full,
It gleams tonight, my full-moon bowl.

Her knee's inflamed, she lies in bed,
Some tears of pain, it's turned bright red,
Where tantra acts the night is clear,
Reflects back, what light is near.

By a river of time, a restless fire,
Ignites in life, what dreams inspire.
Who will take this Shino bowl,
And then for tea, will pour in soul?

What in deed does Murdoch fear?
He's turned eighty, could play King Lear,
In James the son, his ego's host,
He made a run, with his father's ghost.

There's a time to lead and a time to follow,
One's the seed, and the other's the father.
Shiva meditates in his cave,
So brings success, the 'I Ching' says.

I come at last to bowl nineteen,
In which I taste some soul with tea.
On this bowl, Don-oxide danced,
Quixote's soul, walks with lance.

In a tidal marsh, of sunset red,
We saw this egret, before going to bed.
Some red flashing, inside drips,
What's left of brushwork, looks like fish.

I've written couplets about each cup,
Next time I'll write them on it.
And if I get fed up with that,
I'll then start writing sonnets.

A slim tree with leaves of green,
A mountain hidden by what you're seeing.
Mud burned red, by simple iron,
The blood is fed by trembling desire.
A draught of Mars will deaden fears,
Drink from this cup, live a thousand years.

A distant isle swathed in fog,
From ashen fire, a dawn-rising raga.
A volcano's erupted, or else a wig,
A tiny hill, sprouts grassy sprigs.

A weft ikat by fire woven,
A sketch of flames in a witches' coven.
On that sari, or pashmina shawl,
Behind my drawing lies hidden from all.
A Shino bowl, where reds have flashed,
Now is gone, to David's stash.

Hail to a Mott Street friend,
Hale fell at my journey's end.
From this cup we'll drink some tea,
And then old friend, it belongs to thee.

Streaks of lightning, striking down,
Thirty-one is crying, "I'm almost done!"
Strokes by nature's drawing kit,
Mocks attempts, at imitating it.
When tea in this, is finally bowl-ed,
The X you'll see is green and gold.

Fire flutters, and then it rushes,
Iron splatters, rosy blushes.
A mountain seen through snowy haze,
Leaves of tea, in a crackly glaze.
The project’s through, Cup thirty-six,
A haiku of leaves, and winter sticks.


-:-

  123,  4,  5,  6
  78910,11,12

Tea-bowl for M Findlay, #36 of 36, "The Haiku Cup"


















     "The project's through, Cup thirty-six
      A haiku of leaves, and winter sticks."

The tale of 36 tea-bowls reached an end.

Of the first telling.

Now I must follow through with tea, a show, and delivery to those that have chosen bowls for themselves. The bowls will fade away, in time, in some fashion. Some day in the future I'll sit talking to a friend, and he or she will ask me, "Do you remember this?" and I'll be shown one of these fragments of fired earth.

And I'll remember . . . I'll experience time!

Thank-you all for helping me tell the story. You helped me examine my work. Imperfections. The reasons I make it. The people I make it for.

By reading this you helped tell it. By skimming you helped tell it. By choosing, you told it and by not choosing you helped tell it. Like a kiln fire, no matter what you did you played a role.

Many who wanted cups tried to leave comments but were unable or unwilling to navigate past the text verification box that Google puts up. For this I apologize. Looking back I realize that this was a hurdle . . . life does have hurdles.

This last cup is given to a dear cousin, M. Findlay, an artist, and writer of haiku poetry.

Here is a sample of her work:


        in the background
        a robin talks to me
        as I read my book


We make what we make because we must, or because we choose to. Art may play a role in either what must be done. or what is chosen to be done.

We don't require birdsong, and neither do other birds. Birds sing because they're able. We write poetry because we're able, and if we make pots we do so because we're able.

Having to, or wanting, has nothing to do with the supposed art of it. So the ritual of birdsong has much to teach us,.

If you can sing, sing.

-:-

  123,  4,  5,  6
  78910,11,12

Tea-bowl for N. Naumova, #35 of 36, "The Darjeeling Cup"


















     "A mountain seen through snowy haze,
       Leaves of tea, in a crackly glaze."

We are at the eve of completion. Other work starts after this one, preparing journeys abroad, and across this country, readying the studio for visitors, organizing the exhibition.

The brushstrokes on this one do resemble a far away Himalayan peak. A view from Darjeeling, through mist.

On the other side, the 'fog' of crackled Shino has overrun the cup. In time the tiny cracks darken. That process may be sped up, by soaking vessels in tea, but why rush it?

Let age come naturally to all things. Trees, prairies, tea-bowls too.


-:-

  123,  4,  5,  6
  78910,11,12

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