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  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!