The Staple
Mi fan, the goddess of rice, astride fields and kitchens,
blesses the eaters with glutinous grains three times a day.
But humans have found more uses for the divine staple.
Paper! Rice water spread into sheets, receives paint
and water to shape mountains and lakes, flowers and birds,
forests and stones. All too too real for aesthetic minds.
Yet it’s not so easy. Brushes must be held like chopsticks,
flexible within the fingers, moved deftly in different positions,
upright for thin lines, at angles for sliding and swirling,
edged for hooks and circles. Always, always, to go right,
you must first go left. Be bold, be strong, use it like the gesture
of desire that consumes and devours a steaming bowl of rice.
Like the old gods, the brush too holds many worlds
within a single touch. Soaked fully and half-squeezed,
it must divide itself into three worlds: the base,
the middle and the top, each containing a different colour.
When put on paper, like the rainbow it should display
a variegated reality, all in the same one sweep.
Page(s) 27
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