Tuesday Poem - One Senryu & two haikus by Rupert Summerson

i

A sombre event

Dark glasses to hide the tears

Thinking of Japan

ii

Chit chat chitter chat

Rosellas on the power lines

With a whirr they’re gone

iii

Dawn has just broken

The street trees turned into gold

Old moon in the east

Rupert Summerson

My friend Rupert holds great reverence for all things Japanese. It was Rupert who re-introduced me to Basho (how could I have left him covered in dust for all those years?) and, too, to the sounds of the traditional wind instrument shakahachi and stringed instrument, koto. 

Rupert, Lisa Roberts (she of the lyrical krill and coccolithophors) and I met in Christchurch at the Imagining Antarctica conference hosted by Gateway Antarctica in --- heavens, when was it --- 2007? The Ant. conference happened to fall during the same week as Christchurch Writers' Week, so the city was a-buzz with creative zealots. I'd heard - though not really listened to - a shakuhachi a handful of times before. 

At the end of our day's meetings, a group of us walked into town to a restaurant beside the Avon River - 'Sticky Fingers' was on what's known as 'The Strip' on Oxford Terrace. We had a delicious meal with Central Otago red wine and wide-roaming conversation. Penelope was with us; I vividly recall her recounting the dream she'd had a few nights before - the dream that ultimately gave rise to her inspiring e-publishing company, Rosa Mira Books - yes! Reality is born of dreams.). After dinner, Rupert unsheathed his shakuhachi, walked over to a darkened corner of the restaurant and played a piece of ancient Japanese music for us.  

The shakuhachi is an instrument that's all about 'the breath.' It's played in an attitude of mindfulness - i.e, meditatively and with the intention of humility and 'offering' rather than one of performance. I find its sound haunting - it puts me in mind of words like 'origin' and 'ancient', 'sacred', 'source', 'pure' and 'distillation.' 

In the relatively short time I've known Rupert, he has written a great many haikus. These days, he generally writes between one and three haikus and/or senryus a week. In the recent e- that carried the three poems above, Rupert wrote, "Three haikus - actually, one senryu and two haikus - this week. On Saturday I went to a memorial event in the Japanese gardens near here for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Japan's ambassador was there and one of my shakuhachi-playing friends played Tamuke, a traditional piece often played at funerals. It means prayer for a safe passage and is very beautiful. . . "

Last month, Rupert - who lives in Canberra - played his shakuhachi every lunchtime to raise money for the Red Cross earthquake fund in Christchurch. The month before that, he played for the flood-affected people of Victoria; this coming month, he will again be busking for the people of Christchurch this time donating his earnings to MANY AS ONE. Thank you for this beautiful gesture, Rupert.   

Rupert busking in Canberra - April 2011

Water messenger, Dr. Masaru Emoto

Dr. Emoto's Request for Assisting Japan:

Below is a special message from renowned Japanese Scientist Dr. Masaru Emoto who brought attention to the power of thought/prayer on water crystals. He has a special request for assistance tomorrow noon...

"To All People Around the World,

Please send your prayers of love and gratitude to water at the nuclear plants in Fukushima, Japan.

By the massive earthquakes of Magnitude 9 and surreal massive tsunamis, more than 10,000 people are still missing…even now… It has been 16 days already since the disaster happened. What makes it worse is that water at the reactors of Fukushima Nuclear Plants started to leak, and it’s contaminating the ocean, air and water molecules of the surrounding areas. 

Human wisdom has not been able to do much to solve the problem, but we are only trying to cool down the anger of radioactive materials in the reactors by discharging water to them.

Is there really nothing else to do?

I think there is. During over twenty year research of hado measuring and water crystal photographic technology, I have been witnessing that water can turn positive when it receives pure vibration of human prayer no matter how far away it is.

The energy formula of Albert Einstein, E=MC2 really means that Energy = number of people and the square of people’s consciousness. 

Now is the time to understand the true meaning. Let us all join the prayer ceremony as fellow citizens of the planet earth.  I would like to ask all people, not just in Japan, but all around the world to please help us to find a way out the crisis of this planet. 

The prayer procedure is as follows...

Name of ceremony:

“Let’s send our thoughts of love and gratitude to all water in the nuclear plants in Fukushima”

Day and Time:

March 31st, 2011 (Thursday)

12:00 noon in each time zone

Please say the following phrase:

“The water of Fukushima Nuclear Plant, we are sorry to make you suffer.  Please forgive us.  We thank you, and we love you.”  Please say it aloud or in your mind. 

Repeat it three times as you put your hands together in 

a prayer position. Please offer your sincere prayer.

Thank you very much from my heart."


Masaru Emoto
Messenger of Water

                                                                  Take a small boat 

                                                                  down the river, fish 

                                                                  in the rain, cherish

                                                                  the green moss, love 

                                                                  the waters that offer us 

                                                                  their purity; love
                                                                  the waters. 


                                                                  CB

Wed nes day

(It still is in the Northern Hemisphere. . .) 

Like so many of you, I have felt stunned into silence - wordlessness - lately. I've not been able to find words - 'right' words, 'relevant' words, 'resonant' words. Thankfully, one of the gifts of living in community is that sooner or later, some amongst find a way to articulate in writing what the rest of us are feeling but cannot yet speak. Antares Cryptos & Angella - thank you. And last night, Penelope - whose blog The Intertidal Zone will be known to many of you - found her voice (and, by proxy, ours?) and penned Dawn breaks - - - 

"Venus hangs fat and gold. The old ring-barked sycamore gleams white under a pale blue sky. Leaves fidget in the first breeze. I sit on a cushion and light a candle in the window where a fine-limbed spider makes delicate purchase, trying to climb the glass. The garden, the spider and the star are reassuring, each in its own way, steadfastly doing what its species does: living and dying, web-making, burning bright.


Reassuring because I feel increasingly uncertain what’s required of me on a planet that’s quivering with its own potency and undermining centuries-old assumptions about our place upon it. . ." 


To continue reading Penelope's thoughtful reflection, click here.

*

Last night, two sets of names & artworks were drawn in our MANY AS ONE Christchurch appeal - All Directions Lead Home by Kate Alterio will soon be on its way to a writer/ reader in South Portland, Main and my small ink drawing Many Islands has been matched to a reader in La Jolla, San Diego.  Warmest thanks, all. 

    

Small prayer

The insistence of Light

Japan