Zen Tea by Laurinda Lind

An American I met who

had lived in Japan spent

six years on tea ceremony

and its powdered

leaves; left barely

knowing anything.

Much in this way can

expand until it is more

than it is, and in seven

centuries each inch of

rite grew ripe as a life.

The Indian Buddhist

Bodhidharma, so he wouldn’t

sleep when he meant to meditate,

is said to have sliced off his own eyelids, then what did

they turn into-- tea leaves. My American friend,

if her knees hurt too much

from kneeling at the cups,

could have cut those

off as well and by this bold initiative,

slid all the way

up the board to beginner.

---

Laurinda Lind lives in New York’s North Country, near Canada. Some of her poems are in Atlanta Review, Blue Fifth Review, New American Writing, Paterson Literary Review, and Spillway; find more by Googling her name. She is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee.