Zuihitsu

[the mingo]

trying to stay warm Wireman - 5 below zero this morning stayed up all night to keep the fire going drank coffee wrote played chess...and kept throwing slabwood to the flames

counting syllables - where does that get fun? - can't even write poems on trees this weather - ink in the brush would freeze on first contact with the bark of the tree - I wonder what Han Shan did in the winter? did he move south or what? Did he even live where there was a winter?

this is
a poem?
...No.

this is
a poem
...Yes.

The whole thing is more fucked than duck spaghetti - even the dog is sleeping next to the woodstove -

I'm gonna go Google Han Shan + winter - see what happens - keep the coffee going & the love flowing

[WIREMAN]

Winter is a bitch for sure....got a bit of a respite here today, in the 40's....should get up into 50's down here this week, got my fingers crossed....Han Shan on that mountain had to be cold.....brrrrrrrrrrrf!!!

[judih]

some people like winter
i've heard tales
fearsome, impossible tales

[the mingo]

some people like winter
i've heard tales
fearsome, impossible tales

it's not so much the big events like snowstorms or cold snaps, judih, it's the thousand and one difficulties winter adds to the day-to-day. Winter always costs someone their life or peace of mind up here. Of course you never see that pictured on all those Christmas cards.

[the mingo]

Han Shan on that mountain had to be cold.....brrrrrrrrrrrf!!!

No lie, and those renegade monks didn't wear much 'neath that robe -

[sasha]

it's not so much the big events like snowstorms or cold snaps, judih, it's the thousand and one difficulties winter adds to the day-to-day. Winter always costs someone their life or peace of mind up here. Of course you never see that pictured on all those Christmas cards.

Ain't it the truth. Everything seems to need three hands in the winter. One to hold the leash. One to remove a glove. One to reach into the handbag for a dog treat, or into my coat pocket for the house key.

One to steady myself on a tree. One to pull my foot up enough to see the bottom of my boot. One to remove the stick that's gotten wedged in my Yak-Trax.

Can't park at the trailheads 'cause they're not plowed, and I don't dare pull the car too far off the road 'cause I don't have snow tires, only all-seasons. (I'm not commuting 50 miles a day any more.) Running out of places to let Kane run off-leash, and his cabin fever is starting to infect me. And it's only December.

I don't wear my glasses on winter hikes. The cold makes my eyes run, and it's easier to wipe them if I'm bare-eyed. Besides, the tears leave salt deposits on the lenses. But not being able to see what might be approaching in the distance can be a bitch. Then again, when my eyes are full of water I can't see even if I'm wearing them, so what's the point?

...
I love this form. Never heard of it before stumbling into this thread.

[WIREMAN]

Anything goes in Zuihitsu......mindlessness supreme

[judih]

if i could scoop you all up in my space kayak, i'd bring you all over to the western negev. We don't seem to freeze much over here. Our tears roll down our cheeks. Our dogs bark freely at each strange scent. And the bike path grows sandy, this drier week.

[the mingo]

One to hold the leash. One to remove a glove.

I know exactly what you're saying, sash - what I'm talkin' about (winter) ---> Zuihitsu not common or well-known in the west but there are things to google on it -
- it's perfect for me -

[the mingo]

Anything goes in Zuihitsu......mindlessness supreme

you can jam bam scam ram
leave tracks in the sand
Who-Who??
Zuihitsu !

[the mingo]

if i could scoop you all up in my space kayak, i'd bring you all over to the western negev. We don't seem to freeze much over here. Our tears roll down our cheeks. Our dogs bark freely at each strange scent. And the bike path grows sandy, this drier week.

Ah, fat tire bike country ! Get a set of Fat Frank's for your bike or them gnarly mountain bike tires - I got some of them for the snow - but that's got to be hot right, the Negev I mean - I can see me out there two canteens strapped across my chest on a bike with no name -

[the mingo]

River curves, heads into forest, snow along it's banks - tracks in that snow - is this my mind ?

I can't remember any of my first wife's bridesmaids.

My father's death brought me first to my knees then all the way to the floor in an upstairs room where I practiced calligraphy more than a thousand miles from his last breath.

Some years later my mother's death came and went. A week before she died she called me by the name of her grandson, my nephew. It was surreal especially since I don't have much use for my nephew. He is a living breathing fuckhead. He probably won't die before me but if he does I will be very tempted to go to his grave with a magic marker in my pocket and write on his headstone:

spent a
whole life as
a
living
breathing
fuckhead

Snow outside the window - wind picking up the loose surface layer - swirling it across the yard down the bank into & across
the river.

[sasha]

winter sunshine - how long has it been? days? or forevers?

An early morning dusting of snow has covered the hole my pee drilled into the hardpack last night. I shall drill another later, maybe.

A northwest wind pushes a few clouds through the blue overhead. For some reason I recall a moment like this when I was a young man with a wife. Today I am neither. But by remembering, perhaps I am.

[still.trucking]

Winter is magic when you are you are trucking over Monarch Pass.

Mysterious prayer

Mythologies of earth, stone, tree. Sympathetic Magic

It is still common practice among the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) men to be buried with their lacrosse sticks. More than just a tradition for them - a way of life, all the way to the grave
viewtopic.php?f=73&t=30107&p=193781&hil ... ic#p193781

I want to buried with a wheel in my hands.
I don't miss winter, Texas is full of snow birds like me

[the mingo]

I want to buried with a wheel in my hands.

You're a romantic, Jack, Texas or no Texas -