by Alan Spence
GLASGOW ZEN
Alan Spence
To
Edwin Morgan
CONTENTS
Glasgow Zen
Jingle
Joshu’s Mu
Japanese Boxes
Today
Motorway Red
Rag
Paddy’s
Sing
Lorry
Song
Prayer Flag
Silver
Tarnish
Eye of the Storm
Loop
Touching the Void
Same Old
As Light
Seeing Mount Fuji
EM
Football Haiku
The Pundits
Glasgow’s Full of Poets
After the Japanese (1)
After the Japanese (2)
Issa
Ryokan
Santoka
Oracle
Glasgow Zen (2)
Coda
GLASGOW ZEN
On the oneness of self and universe
IT’S AW WAN
TAE ME
On the ultimate identity of
matter and spirit, form and void
WHIT’S THE MATTER?
NUTHIN!
On the suchness of things
AYE, THIS IS IT
THIS IS THE THING
On identity in difference
SIX AN
HAUF A DOZEN
On the implicit dualism
of value-judgements
IT’S AWFUL
GOOD
JINGLE
Jingle on Glasgow city arms
This is the bell that never rang
This is the fish that never swam
This is the tree that never grew
This is the bird that never flew
This is the bell that never rang
This
RANG
This is
RANG RANG
This is the bell
RANG
This is the bell that
RANG
This is never
RANG
This is never the bell that
RANG
This is the rang bell
RANG RANG RANG
This is the bell that
RANG RANG RANG RANG
never
This is the tree that never grew
This tree never grew green
This green tree never grew
Neverever green grew this tree
This tree grew never evergreen
This is the bird that never flew
this is the
bird
this is the
bird
this wee
bird
teenie
bird
totie
bird
chookie
bird
this is the
bird
it never
flew
never
flew
never
flew
never
flew
aw!
This is the fish that never swam
this is the fish
tell me who I am
fish out of water
never ever swam
JOSHU’S MU
One of the most famous Japanese koans is the question ‘Does a dog have the Buddha-nature?’ For various reasons, ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ are both wrong answers! The most famous answer, given by a monk named Joshu, was the single syllable Mu, which means nothing, no-thing, emptiness.
The following is a meditation on Joshu’s Mu, with help from King Lear and The Shorter Catechism.
What is man’s chief end?
To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
Why did the chicken cross the road?
To get to the other side.
Does a dog have the Buddha-nature?
Mu.
Why did the chicken cross the road?
To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
What is man’s chief end?
To get to the other side.
Does a dog have the Buddha-nature?
Mu.
What is the square root of minus one?
How many angels on the head of a pin?
Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life
and thou no breath at all?
Mu.
Mu
MORE ON JOSHU’S MU
Does a turnip have the Buddha-nature?
the turnip-lantern –
his head is empty
his light shines out
through his face
Does a cow have the Buddha-nature?
Mu.
JAPANESE BOXES
(Daibutsu, Great Buddha, Kamakura)
I sit inside
the compassionate Buddha
who sits inside
this world of things
which sits inside
the universe
which sits inside
the great void
which sits inside
my heart
TODAY
Today came spring
-ing
It
took me by surprise,
leapt and
bowled me over
like a big
daft dog.
on a train rolling through
snowcovered fields, the
bright sun scudding beside me
along
touching me awake to see.
Today it came
with crocuses open by
hardfrozen tractortracks
with daffodils, bent by the snow
but Trumpetting
with O the Sun
and even, God, lambs
Today came Spring.
MOTORWAY RED
Lorries pass us, kick up spray as
we drive through this grey dream,
this other element,
grey road grey sky edges blurred.
Trees and fields fade grey away
through rain;
the world is washed out, disappears
between the windscreen wipers beat
and stroke /
the systole / the diastole
the beat, the beat that
keeps us clear.
We accelerate into it,
buoyant feel real
exhilaration.
The grey waters part
and LOOK, overtaking
us it
flashes fast past,
a red RED car.
RAG
A black rag flaps,
trapped against a branch,
its tattered wings
tearing the air.
A dead bird hangs, caught,
in the tree’s cleft groin,
frayed at the edges,
limp as a rag.
The maggoty carcass rots
like me.
The wind rises
and the rag
lifts
free.
PADDY’S
PADDY’S MARKET PADDY’S WHACK
NICK NACK BRICABRAC
PADDY MALARKY PAKI BLACK
Give a dog a bad bone
Rags
SING
(homage to Gertrude Stein)
every single thing sings
everything sings
is singular
sings
in singularity sings and rings
tell the bell
the song sung true
sing everything
is a thing is a thing
is a thing is a thing
is a thing is a thing
sing
LORRY
(homage to Laurie Anderson)
‘Language is slippery.’
It’s like
sometimes you’re trying
to say something,
you know?
Like
the other day
I went to cross the road,
right?
I mean that’s all
just cross the road
like the chicken in the old joke.
And there’s this big lorry
blocking my way
and it sort of growls at me
and eases forward
as soon as I step out.
Know what I mean?
So I didn’t want to risk
crossing in front of it.
No way.
So I started to walk round
behind it.
And I got about halfway round
when the lorry moved off
and left me
walking round
nothing.
It’s like
It’s like
It’s like
as if
as if
as if
nothing
SONG
the littlest bird
sang all for me
its song was love
it set me free
sang at my birth
and at my death
it sang its song
with my last breath
the littlest bird
sang in my soul
its song was joy
it made me whole
it made me whole
it set me free
it sang its song
its song was me
PRAYER FLAG
AUTUMN
AUM
AUTUMN
AUM
AUTUMN
AUM
SILVER
silver
river
silver
river
silver
river
TARNISH
EYE OF THE STORM
LOOP
TOUCHING THE VOID
NOWHERE
NOW
HERE
SAME OLD
same old story
same old song
same old same old
what went wrong?
AS LIGHT
could be
as light
as light
as light as
could be
SEEING MOUNT FUJI FROM THE BULLET TRAIN
EM
(for Edwin Morgan)
ELECTRO MAGNETIC
EMPATHIC MAGIC
EVERY MOMENT
EVOLVING MIND
ENDLESS MYSTERY
EASY MASTERY
ELEMENTAL MUSIC
EVEN MORE
EENIE MEENIE
EMERGENT MEANING
EVER MOVING
EVERYDAY MIRACLE
EARTHY MERCURIAL
EXTRAORDNAR MAKAR
EDDIE MORGAN
E M
E M
FOOTBALL HAIKU
HERE
WE
GO
THE
NEW
SEASON
GET
IT
CLEAR
USE
THE
WINGS
ONLY
ONE
BEST
TAKE
ROUTE
ONE
NO
EXTRA
TIME
YELLOW
YELLOW
RED
LAST
EXTRA
FINAL
ENDED
NIL
NIL
THE PUNDITS
(verbatim poems)
BIG RON SPEAKS
The pundits said
he hadn’t the bottle.
But look! He’s shining
like a new pin!
GRANDSTAND
This is her last opportunity
and she’s going to grab it
with both teeth.
PITTODRIE PUNTER
(for Liam McIlvanney)
Young Darren – first touch,
stood on the ba,
made an arse o himself.
A shame.
KRISHNA CONCIOUSNESS
(young devotee selling CDs)
As well as being
totally transcendental
it’s damn good dance.
GLASGOW’S FULL OF POETS
glasgow’s full of artists
they’re three feet tall
and eat sherbet dabs
– Alan Jackson
glasgow’s full of poets
five foot two
drink irn bru
glasgow’s full of poets
transcendental
pure mental
glasgow’s full of poets
know the score
the hampden roar
glasgow’s full of poets
give it laldy
pure bobo balde
glasgow’s full of poets
no lacuna
the full bhuna
glasgow’s full of poets
could be
see me?
AFTER THE JAPANESE (1)
BILINGUAL HAIKU
ka … ka … kaki
taste of persimmon
voice of the crow
AFTER BASHO
Learn how to pine
from the pine.
AFTER SENGAI
Eat the void
(there’s nothing like it!)
and have a cup of tea.
SENGAI ANNOUNCES HIS OWN ABSENCE
Stuck his head
out the window,
roared Go away!
There’s nobody here!
AFTER DOGEN
white heron
in the snow
hidden but
still itself
still
itself
AFTER THE JAPANESE (2)
(anonymous tanka sequence)
The sound of her footsteps
on the frozen path to his door?
No, it’s just his own heartbeat.
Waiting for his lover
as the snow closes in.
That surge of small birds
across the sky, turning
turning as one
in the morning light
making the heart soar.
She’s gone, and now, hours later
he picks up the cup
she drank from,
presses it to his lips,
a kiss.
That surge of small birds
across the sky, turning
turning as one
in the evening light
breaking the heart.
Burning her letter,
he smells one last time
the perfume she drenched it in –
sudden incense, intensely sweet.
Then it’s acrid cinders, ash.
ISSA, RYOKAN, SANTOKA
The following are versions, translations into Glasgow speech, of haiku by three great Japanese poets – Issa (1763–1827), Ryokan (1758–1831) and Santoka (1882–1940).
ISSA
New Year –
ma dump ae a hoose,
jist the same
freezin cauld –
poor wee hoor, scrapin
stoor aff a pot
it’s rainin,
the wean’s in
dancin aboot wi
the kitten
wid ye lookit
the state ae it –
me in ma new jaicket!
oot the road, wee sparra!
here’s the high heid-yin:
a hoarse!