No-words
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“No trace of realization remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly.”
– Dōgen (trans. Kazuaki Tanahashi)
This is why it would be better
to spend the morning drawing circles,
the afternoon,
burning them.
To thickly butter bread slices,
to give nothing of the self
but flesh.
Joanna Cantor
I thought of this poem, by Joanna Cantor, while hanging persimmons to dry in my studio. Each one is suspended from conduit with a piece of thread looped and knotted around its stem. As is often the case, I wanted to finish quickly. Some work-- like drawing, like printmaking, like befriending stoic people-- does not come quickly. It is helpful to find yourself in such slow work.
Part of the appeal of working with fruits, wildcrafting, etc. is that it demands time. There is not much to be done to shortcut the time it takes for a plant to grow, ripen, and yield seeds. Now to take that crux and bring it to the precious printed object.
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