MISTER DONUT!
Was going to edit my last blog (yesterday) but re-read it and decided it was fine as it was. It wasn`t in chronological order and didn`t have any commentary (except on poetry) so might have been a bit confusing to figure out where I was and whatI was doing. The format of my prior announced `poetry travelogue` is becoming clearer to me: it will be journey notes, comments and details interspersed by poems, hopefully with pictures. So treat the blog as `work in progress and on the hoof` and I`ll order it, add to it etc when I get back. Hope to publish it in book form ... ANYONE OUT THERE READING THIS HAS ANY CONTACTS/SUGGESTIONS IN THE BOOK TRADE? I`ll certtainly try to get it out on the BBC or something: Home Truths have expressed an interest for a 7 minute slot and will pay me for 1 1/2 days `reporters rate` if I come back with stuff they can use`; so I`m also recording to MD en route (I am lugging literally tons of bloody electronica around with me!) Other indy suppliers to R4 have said, non-commitedly, that they`ll see whatI come back with ...
I`m holed up in Tsuruoka, west coast of Japan, several hundred km up from Niigata, south of Sakata. `Holed up` because it`s chucking it down, and has been for the past two days solid. I gather a taifun is letting loose somewhere, but can`t identify from the TV pictures where it is currently. There`s a certain synchronity going on, not surprising, really, considering the intense, deep effort, thought, preparation and meditation which has been necesssary to get me to Japan. On leaving Naruko-onsen (hot-springs) in 1689 Basho wrote:
"Beyond Narugo Hot Springs, we crossed Shitomae Barrier and entered Dewa Province. Almost no-one comes this way, and the barrier guards were suspicious, slow and thorough. Delayed, we climbed a steep mountain in falling dark and took refuge in a guard shack. A heavy storm pounded the shack with wind and rain for three miserable days.
Eaten alive by lice and fleas
now the horse
beside my pillow pees"
On leaving Narugo Hot Springs I wrote:
Basho was treated suspiciously here; there is a theory
that he was a spy for the Shogunate. Freely passing
Shitomae-no-seki, mist lifts off the valley
I got in a JR local train in falling rain and took refuge in Tsuruoka. A heavy storm pounded the streets for three restful days in a Western style guesthouse.
Travelling to Tsuruoka:
Long, boring, grey, miserable day;
the weather brightens towards evening.
My heart lifts: mountains!
In Tsuruoka
Sod the gameshow:
let`s see the crumpet!
Mister Do-Not
Tomorrow - genuine Japan;
but tonight - Mister Donut!
(er, sumimasen, `genuine Japan` wa doku desu ka?)
(sumimasen=pardon me; wa doku desu ka = where is it?)
at Shinjo, waiting for a connection
`Book off!` it says on the roof of a book
warehouse in the outskirts of Shinjo. Book
off yourself! What a thing to say to a poet!
The Japanese are a very practical and pragmatic people. You can tell that they sit down and think things through: "now what is a person likely to need in these circumstances?" they think, then provide it before being asked. The Posto (it`s not the proper Japanese word but everyone understands it) I went to this morning is a good example. Apart from being open when you need it (ie most of the time), there are several stands which have the following: a ball of string on a gizmo to pull out and cut; two bottles of glue, and, best of all, colour-coded glasses! (red, yellow and blue: all of different strengths, so if oba-san (honourable grandmother) has forgotten her glasses - hoppla, here you are!; and the surface of these stands is of a special material ideally suited for writing on. So they`ve sat there and thought, "now what does our typical customer need and how can we provide it? When I was in Nobiru (Oku-Matsumashita), a tidgy little town, not only was the service station spanking clean, but the attendants stood outside it on the forecourt, waiting for honourable customer to roll up so they could help them. If you ask for a ticket at a train station then the bloke gives you one in English - and writes the platform number on the bottom. The optician in Sendai mended my glasses and gave them back to me. "Ikura desu ka" I ask (how much?). He smiles and bows. `My pleasure," he says.
First ever zazen in Japan; those, numerous
as the sands of the Ganges, who have ever sat zazen
in this country breathe in with me;
I breathe out: gods cannot catch me
At Naruko-onsen
Poetry exists to say the subtle obvious
- or is that the obviously subtle?
What does poetry have to do with the state of the world, the
crisis in Sudan, global warming, international terrorism, peace
on earth, mercy mild, the price of petrol?
Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing
(that means: Everything)
What do you intend to do about the economy?
Write poem
What do you intend to do about global warming?
Write poem
What do you intend to do about starvation in Africa?
Write poem
Are you supremely arrogant, supremely uncaring, supremely stupid or supremely wise?
Write poem
I knew it - I knew that just after I`d propounded a theory about `the rule of 3 in Japanese temple architecture` and things being unsymmetrical, and to the left (see earlier blog), I`d find every single shrine, temple etc I visited was absolutely symmetrical and had no `3s` in it! And thus it has come to pass! Bow down, Oh Son of Israel and admit thy grievous folly! Bollox. The whole point about being somewhere where you haven`t the slightest idea what`s going on (My Japanese may stretch to "I am allergic to shellfish" - watashi wa kai ni arerugi ga arimasu, in case you wanted to know, "arerugi" being, of course, the Japanese for "allergy" - but it doesn`t stretch to a discussion of the hermeneutic art of 12th century temple building!) is that you can propound any theory you want, with no danger of being contradicted. So I think, er, take it as a poetic whimsy ...
The Japanese FRAME things. They know that humans cannot think without a frame within which to have the thoughts, indeed, we cannot see anything for which we do not have a conceptual frame set up. I repeat: we cannot see something for which we do not have a frame. This is not new, or original: the history of Western art is absolutely of FRAMING things so we can see them. Could we see a sunflower, I mean SEE a sunflower before Van Gogh framed one? He created a new FRAME for us to SEE a common-or-garden sunflower in a completely new way. That one`s now worth trillions, isn`t it? So the reason the path to Ojima, or Oshima Island at Matsushima is curved, and not straight, is because this happens: at first you are presented with blank rock, a blank wall. As you walk on, a sliver of sky is presented to you, framed by the rock. As you move further on, suddenly the whole vista is presented to you, framed in Japanese red pine, one branch growing this way, another that: a red bridge, the curve of the island`s flank, the shrine above the bridge and to the left. I`ll say it again: none of this could be placed anywhere else, it`s not that it has to be this way, it just IS! So the architects of this manipulation knew exactly what they were doing and they did this by unknowing it: frame, and rightness.
And red - why is the bridge red? Yes, I recall reading somewhere that red is a propitious colour in China, a colour of good fortune - but why? Then a tourist brochure provides a clue: the Japanese venerate the Autumn colours, especially of maple ... red maple. Torii`s are red (a torii is the red gateway which denotes "you are now entering the spiritual realm"); we have, here, a red bridge. The maple is red because it`s dying ... passing over to another season, another realm; a torii is a gateway to a new realm; a bridge connects two realms, two worlds
My Mitsubishi Shogun has four-on-the-floor Transmission
You get instant Enlightenment when you turn on the ignition
It`s all-aluminium V8 beats all 5 Skodas into submission
Wuhey! Says I, now that`s what I call authentic Buddhist tradition!
Well what d`you expect at 3 am in the morning? Poetry?
Priddy Green, Somerset (on seeing rice straw stooped to dry)
This the Japanese farmer would understand:
wood, stakes. The feel of straw in the hands.
How to make a stoop.
I`m holed up in Tsuruoka, west coast of Japan, several hundred km up from Niigata, south of Sakata. `Holed up` because it`s chucking it down, and has been for the past two days solid. I gather a taifun is letting loose somewhere, but can`t identify from the TV pictures where it is currently. There`s a certain synchronity going on, not surprising, really, considering the intense, deep effort, thought, preparation and meditation which has been necesssary to get me to Japan. On leaving Naruko-onsen (hot-springs) in 1689 Basho wrote:
"Beyond Narugo Hot Springs, we crossed Shitomae Barrier and entered Dewa Province. Almost no-one comes this way, and the barrier guards were suspicious, slow and thorough. Delayed, we climbed a steep mountain in falling dark and took refuge in a guard shack. A heavy storm pounded the shack with wind and rain for three miserable days.
Eaten alive by lice and fleas
now the horse
beside my pillow pees"
On leaving Narugo Hot Springs I wrote:
Basho was treated suspiciously here; there is a theory
that he was a spy for the Shogunate. Freely passing
Shitomae-no-seki, mist lifts off the valley
I got in a JR local train in falling rain and took refuge in Tsuruoka. A heavy storm pounded the streets for three restful days in a Western style guesthouse.
Travelling to Tsuruoka:
Long, boring, grey, miserable day;
the weather brightens towards evening.
My heart lifts: mountains!
In Tsuruoka
Sod the gameshow:
let`s see the crumpet!
Mister Do-Not
Tomorrow - genuine Japan;
but tonight - Mister Donut!
(er, sumimasen, `genuine Japan` wa doku desu ka?)
(sumimasen=pardon me; wa doku desu ka = where is it?)
at Shinjo, waiting for a connection
`Book off!` it says on the roof of a book
warehouse in the outskirts of Shinjo. Book
off yourself! What a thing to say to a poet!
The Japanese are a very practical and pragmatic people. You can tell that they sit down and think things through: "now what is a person likely to need in these circumstances?" they think, then provide it before being asked. The Posto (it`s not the proper Japanese word but everyone understands it) I went to this morning is a good example. Apart from being open when you need it (ie most of the time), there are several stands which have the following: a ball of string on a gizmo to pull out and cut; two bottles of glue, and, best of all, colour-coded glasses! (red, yellow and blue: all of different strengths, so if oba-san (honourable grandmother) has forgotten her glasses - hoppla, here you are!; and the surface of these stands is of a special material ideally suited for writing on. So they`ve sat there and thought, "now what does our typical customer need and how can we provide it? When I was in Nobiru (Oku-Matsumashita), a tidgy little town, not only was the service station spanking clean, but the attendants stood outside it on the forecourt, waiting for honourable customer to roll up so they could help them. If you ask for a ticket at a train station then the bloke gives you one in English - and writes the platform number on the bottom. The optician in Sendai mended my glasses and gave them back to me. "Ikura desu ka" I ask (how much?). He smiles and bows. `My pleasure," he says.
First ever zazen in Japan; those, numerous
as the sands of the Ganges, who have ever sat zazen
in this country breathe in with me;
I breathe out: gods cannot catch me
At Naruko-onsen
Poetry exists to say the subtle obvious
- or is that the obviously subtle?
What does poetry have to do with the state of the world, the
crisis in Sudan, global warming, international terrorism, peace
on earth, mercy mild, the price of petrol?
Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing
(that means: Everything)
What do you intend to do about the economy?
Write poem
What do you intend to do about global warming?
Write poem
What do you intend to do about starvation in Africa?
Write poem
Are you supremely arrogant, supremely uncaring, supremely stupid or supremely wise?
Write poem
I knew it - I knew that just after I`d propounded a theory about `the rule of 3 in Japanese temple architecture` and things being unsymmetrical, and to the left (see earlier blog), I`d find every single shrine, temple etc I visited was absolutely symmetrical and had no `3s` in it! And thus it has come to pass! Bow down, Oh Son of Israel and admit thy grievous folly! Bollox. The whole point about being somewhere where you haven`t the slightest idea what`s going on (My Japanese may stretch to "I am allergic to shellfish" - watashi wa kai ni arerugi ga arimasu, in case you wanted to know, "arerugi" being, of course, the Japanese for "allergy" - but it doesn`t stretch to a discussion of the hermeneutic art of 12th century temple building!) is that you can propound any theory you want, with no danger of being contradicted. So I think, er, take it as a poetic whimsy ...
The Japanese FRAME things. They know that humans cannot think without a frame within which to have the thoughts, indeed, we cannot see anything for which we do not have a conceptual frame set up. I repeat: we cannot see something for which we do not have a frame. This is not new, or original: the history of Western art is absolutely of FRAMING things so we can see them. Could we see a sunflower, I mean SEE a sunflower before Van Gogh framed one? He created a new FRAME for us to SEE a common-or-garden sunflower in a completely new way. That one`s now worth trillions, isn`t it? So the reason the path to Ojima, or Oshima Island at Matsushima is curved, and not straight, is because this happens: at first you are presented with blank rock, a blank wall. As you walk on, a sliver of sky is presented to you, framed by the rock. As you move further on, suddenly the whole vista is presented to you, framed in Japanese red pine, one branch growing this way, another that: a red bridge, the curve of the island`s flank, the shrine above the bridge and to the left. I`ll say it again: none of this could be placed anywhere else, it`s not that it has to be this way, it just IS! So the architects of this manipulation knew exactly what they were doing and they did this by unknowing it: frame, and rightness.
And red - why is the bridge red? Yes, I recall reading somewhere that red is a propitious colour in China, a colour of good fortune - but why? Then a tourist brochure provides a clue: the Japanese venerate the Autumn colours, especially of maple ... red maple. Torii`s are red (a torii is the red gateway which denotes "you are now entering the spiritual realm"); we have, here, a red bridge. The maple is red because it`s dying ... passing over to another season, another realm; a torii is a gateway to a new realm; a bridge connects two realms, two worlds
My Mitsubishi Shogun has four-on-the-floor Transmission
You get instant Enlightenment when you turn on the ignition
It`s all-aluminium V8 beats all 5 Skodas into submission
Wuhey! Says I, now that`s what I call authentic Buddhist tradition!
Well what d`you expect at 3 am in the morning? Poetry?
Priddy Green, Somerset (on seeing rice straw stooped to dry)
This the Japanese farmer would understand:
wood, stakes. The feel of straw in the hands.
How to make a stoop.
posted by waveringbats at 10/02/2005 02:20:00 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home