AN INVITATION / R. S. V. P.

* * * * *

Golden GOJI Hermitage

 

5TH/JULY/2014

* * *



DOUGHGEN'S COMMUNITY was not an attempt to dismiss the teachings of the Tathagata but to connect once again with what was essential...AND the role of the baker was singularly instrumental in this. The baker, as a proper and established member of the community, was expected to rise at the same time as those going to sit for zazen. Of course, by the time zazen was over, the bread was never ready for the hungry community. It was decided that the baker should get-up earlier. He was not very happy. If he/she had to get-up earlier, there had to be some give-and-take by the meditators. Thus it was decided that the baker would start just a little earlier, say, about 2 in the morning, and the rest of the community would sit 2 extra periods of zazen. It was in this way, that the baker was seminal in the origination of sesshin and those long hours of sitting...they were waiting for their bread!!! (Golden GOJI Hermitage...4TH/JULY/2014...written just before i put my own bread in the oven @ 5.30...while the loaves were proving.).

* * * * * * * * *



Early morning sun lit room up through curtains...sipping warm water and lemon before Hatha...Krishna Das on stereo with his "Pilgrim Heart" for company...and i stopped to do this...it evolved...and the title only occurred as i was finishing...SOLSTICE.

 

*

circa 6.30 a.m

GOLDEN GOJI HERMITAGE

30th/June/2014

 

 

S O L S T I C E / N A D O

*

 

 



on LARRY EIGNER : little books / little thoughts...

Whilst up amongst clouds in the house's upper reaches this a'noon, i pulled-out a little pamphlet by LARRY EIGNER = "Clouding", Portents #10, published in 1968 by Samuel Charters...

...and as i read and recalled, a little, those first lines on the cover and turned the page to continue, out fell another rare little pamphlet = PAUL BLACKBURN'S copy of LARRY EIGNER'S "The Music, The Rooms", DESERT REVIEW PRESS, New Mexico...i'd clean forgotten i had it! Probably bought it from Jack Shoemaker's SAND DOLLAR BOOKS in the 1970's via Mail Order.

 

It has always been Americans with whom i really connected...so generous and up-for-it...New Worlders!

It was Jack Shoemaker's Maya Quarto series, of letterpress chapbooks, which inspired me to start publishing under my own imprint = STINGY ARTIST EDITIONS, in 1978. The first publication was MONTALE'S TYPOS by Kris Hemensley (lucky to have a poet/writer in the family...THE poet/writer in the family)...AND the second publication was LARRY EIGNER's "FLAGPOLE RIDING" with whom i was already corresponding -(still living in SWAMPSCOTT, at the time)... i was put onto him by my brother, Kris, as Eigner was a favourite and i'd been reading him since i'd seen his poems in Clayton Eshleman's CATERPILLAR magazine and saw the adverts for BLACK SPARROW PRESS in it. i ordered "AIR THE TREES" by LARRY EIGNER, "THE DAYS RUN AWAY LIKE WILD HORSES OVER THE HILLS" by CHARLES BUKOWSKI and "FRAGMENT" by JOHN ASHBERRY:the beginnings of my collection...circa 1969...and the beginnings of a tenuous affair. BUT so many years later, after times of thinking that i would REALLY like to be like that original "Stingy Artist" and "disappear" into the mountains, i am more pleased than not, to have a "hermitage" full of some little thoughts and these attendant "little" books...

*

Golden GOJI Hermitage

27TH/JUNE/2014

* * *

 

 

 

i.m. CHIYO-NI

 

*  *  *  *  *

Golden GOJI Hermitage

 

25TH/JUNE/2014

*  *  *



THUS HAVE i HEARD...A LAYWOMAN attended a short retreat at a nunnery. She threw herself wholeheartedly into the routines and practices...was always up at dawn for prayers in the chapel...observed the injunction against idle chatter at mealtimes and during work practice...and felt so enthused that she retired early to her cell every evening for more prayer and meditation. After a few days of these observances, she felt she did not have the strength to continue in this fashion for the rest of the retreat. She decided to ask the senior nun how the sisters coped with the long evenings after a whole day. "Oh, my dear child," said the nun, "in the evening, we just sit-around and watch television!"...THUS HAVE i HEARD...(Golden GOJI Hermitage - 25th/JUNE/2014)

TOWARDS A CLOSER COMMUNION WITH BIRDS : SIX POEMS

 

1) 

GO INTO A ROOM

AWAY FROM TRAFFIC NOISE

&

REMOVE ALL YOUR CLOTHES

THAT WAY

THERE WILL BE NOTHING

TO IMPAIR OR IMPEDE

THOSE PURE NOTES

GETTING THRU TO YOU

*

 

 

2)

OPEN A WINDOW

THAT OVERLOOKS A GARDEN

WITH SHRUBS

AND/OR TREES

THEN  SIT DOWN

SHUT UP

AND BREATHE NATURALLY

*

 

 

3)

DO NOT USE BINOCULARS

OR TELESCOPES

IF WISHING TO SEE

MORE THAN TWO BIRDS

IN A BUSH

AT THE SAME TIME

*

 

 

4)

GO INTO THE GARDEN

WEED AND CUT GRASSES

TO DISLODGE SEEDS

TURN THE SOIL OVER

TO REVEAL

WORMS AND GRUBS

YOU MIGHT NOT

SEE THESE

BUT BIRDS

ESPECIALLY THE ROBIN

WILL

*

 

 

5)

YOU WILL KNOW IF

A BIRD

IS IN LOVE WITH YOU

IT WILL VISIT

EVERY TIME

YOU APPEAR

COCK ITS HEAD

ON ONE SIDE

AND SING

SOON

YOU'LL HAVE IT FEEDING 

OUT OF YOUR HAND

*

 

 

6)

IF

YOU ARE IN

THE HABIT OF

TAKING A SIESTA

DO NOT CLOSE

YOUR EYES

YOU MIGHT MISS

THE SHADOW OF

A SWOOPING BIRD

PASS OVER

THE DAY BED

WHERE YOU LIE

* * *

Golden GOJI Hermitage

14TH/JUNE/2014

*****