Buddhapada

Tags

Buddha, Buddhapada, Canberra, petrosomatoglyph

 

Going to do another one, as I think I spoilt this one by using chalk

too vigorously.  Saw the originals at The Ashmolean and some

others in Canberra and became fascinated by

petrosomatoglyphs in general.

My Cubist Sculpture

Tags

cubism, Sculpture

 

Fun!

Tasmanian Beach

Tags

acrylic, Tasmanian beach

Taste

It doesn’t matter

if everything is perfect.

A flower’s bud is lovely,

as well as its bloom.

When you see the blossom fall,

it can seem quite sad,

but the yearning to recall

it in its beauty

can be achingly poignant.

Few people have taste.

One should view things as a whole.

Those who are in love

often realise it when

there is an enforced absence.

Wasting Time

Archery tutors

will tell you that two arrows

in your hand merely

make you careless when you draw

the first one.  Each shot

should be as if it’s your last.

Students often find

procrastination tempting.

They tell themselves they’ll study

later in the day.

Then they end up wasting time,

when what they should do

is knuckle down right away

and pay their best attention.

Casa Batllo by Night

Tags

Architecture, Barcelona, Casa Battlo, Gaudi

Wabi Sabi

Tags

Buddhist, Confucian, ku, mujo, sanboin, serenity, wabi sabi

Uniform bindings

on your books shows lack of taste.

Uniformity

in anything is mundane.

Buddhists, Confucians

often left a chapter out

and some palaces,

by art, were left incomplete.

Three marks: sanboin, mujo, ku

are vital concepts.

Reality shows nothing

lasts; nothing’s finished;

nothing is perfect.

Serenity comes with age

and it is a flawed beauty.

John Lackland in Newark

Tags

dysentry, Isabel of Gloucester, John Lackland, Magna Carta, Newark Gate-House, Pope, Runnymede, Swinehead, treason

 

An effigy of King John (Worcester Cathedral)

from Samuel R Gardiner’s ‘History of England’

source: Wikipedia

 

A rhyming romp through a particular period

of history:

 

Banished from Ireland for a good reason

and then committing an act of treason;

responsible for murders, uprisings;

provoking the Pope’s severe chastisings;

killing sons of the Welsh nobility;

losing French land through incivility;

divorcing Isabel of Gloucester (kin);

calling their bond consanguineous sin.

Duplicitous about Magna Carta;

kidnapping his young enamorata.

North, in Lincolnshire, losing his war chest,

which seems like carelessness, or a poor jest;

contracting vile dysentry at Swinehead:

Runnymede in his system, it’s been said.

Newark Gate-House was as far as he reached.

There he expired, before being impeached.

Mata Ninos

My friend suggested that I write a poem addressing the

subject of the women in El Salvador who have been imprisoned

after being accused of self-terminations- sometimes when they

allegedly have just had stillbirths.  I was unaware of this until I

researched the topic and discovered material on the group Las 17.

The prison terms are in the region of decades.

 

MATA NINOS

 

In El Salvador, there’s an assumption,

in many cases, that a miscarriage

is the consequence of an abortion.

Girls who have been raped can lose their freedom.

A premature, or unviable birth

can result in a forty year sentence.

How can a country of that name sentence

women when it reveres the Assumption

of a Virgin? Supernatural birth

protected Mary from a miscarriage

when she experienced threats to her freedom:

state infanticide, worse than abortion?

Las 17, accused of abortion –

each subjected to a lengthy sentence,

in a land whose motto includes ‘Freedom.’

Youngsters, trafficked, can face an assumption

which might lead to judicial miscarriage,

as ‘Mata Ninos.’ They’re victims from birth.

After civil war there should be re-birth,

with an enlightened view of abortion

and understanding that a miscarriage

is, for women, a kind of life sentence.

And why should the state make an assumption

that stillbirth expresses woman’s freedom?

Accused of homicide, denied freedom,

because of complications to a birth –

to disregard is to make assumption

and logic itself suffers abortion.

The powerful deliver the sentence

and fear itself can induce miscarriage.

There’s no calculation in miscarriage.

It’s spontaneous – there is no freedom

expressed. Those women uttered no sentence:

‘I now intend to sabotage this birth,‘

nor ‘Drinking this will promote abortion.’

Blame’s an ignorant assumption.

Restricting freedom; pronouncing sentence

on those who endure miscarriage, stillbirth:

abortion of innocence assumption.

All Shall Pass

Tags

choka, Hojo Temple, Kaneyuki, Kyogoku, Mikado, Nine Images of Buddha

Even The Palace

at Kyogoku and the

Hojo Temple are

fallen into deep decay.

The family of

the Mikado’s guardian

could not preserve them.

Nine images of Buddha

remain, however.

Kaneyuki’s painted door

has somehow survived.

Elsewhere, not even ruins

are able to tell stories.