December on my Japanese Calendar. (New final line and other changes).

The first tea plants grew from the eyelids of Bodhidharma
When he snipped them off to keep himself awake
During long days and weeks of meditation.

Old legends cannot always be believed in
Although they are attractive enough to be almost true,
And green tea has a taste as sharp as Zen.

But no meditating monk would need a bowl of tea
To keep awake in this fearsome winter weather,
The sky an ice sheet mirroring the snow.

Three men, almost invisible beneath broad cloaks
That hang like bell tents from their stooping shoulders,
Cross a long white bridge with cautious footsteps,

They are following old footprints into open country
With barely a tree or boulder to offer them cover
If the wind should turn around to whip their faces.

Balanced between the limits of life and eternity
These travellers follow the ghost of a narrow road.
Snow blind and frozen they stumble along the way,

And because I cannot know, or seek out their destinations,
They remain enigmas trapped inside a time frame,
I can only guess at who they really were:

Exhausted merchants trudging through the snowfields,
Stubbornly pushing against the weight of winter
To reach the end of just another journey;
Or local farmers
Searching for the first inklings of spring?

                            *

This print by Hokusai has no known title.
Perhaps it is a riddle without an answer.
Perhaps it is a gateway to Satori.

I must trust each line he cut into the woodblock,
His eyes were clear as the sleepless Bodhidharma`s,
And he carved with care the truth as he perceived it.

His eyes were as clear as the eyes of the old Zen Master.
His pictures are mirrors made without a flaw.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
October 4th. - 31st. - November 30th. - December 1st.- 3rd. 2019.