Two Poems by Chuck Taylor

Chawan
 
Kurabara-sensi refused to use
A potter’s wheel. Two squares of wood, the one
Set on top to rotate, gave him the tone
 
And spirit he sought. I’d stay up all night
To help him fire his pots. He made plates and
Dishes, but was famous for his tea bowls,
 
Chawan, used in tea ceremony, and
We’d sit down in his studio to
Drink the smooth green tea that’s powdered, that he’d
 
Whisk into hot spring water. When you sip
From a chawan you feel the ease and grace
Of tea. The bowl’s hand built so the center
 
Of gravity is high. All night, after the
Kiln was loaded, we’d add to the logs placed
Before to maintain hot temperature.
 
Everything of the earth has spirit, he’d
Stop to say, and everything of this earth
Is not perfectly symmetrical. He’s
 
All right for geometry, Euclid, but
Not for making beauty, the wabi, the
Sabi. Beauty needs waves of accident,
 
Like trees, like leaves, like the cherry blossoms,
To be true, to not ring hollow, to be
Art that brings spirit to our mortal hearts





EINSTEIN DATA SHEET
 
When Edison invented the telephone Einstein handed him the records to play on it. Fear of spiders is arachnophobia, fear of tight spaces is claustrophobia, fear of Einstein is called the theory of relativity. Einstein died over fifty years ago, but due to the relativity of time death wasn’t in the right time zone yet to tell him. Einstein has already been to Mars; that's why there are so many cats on the planet. Einstein has counted to infinity - an infinite number of times. When Einstein does a pushup, he isn't lifting his body up, he's pushing the universe away. Einstein doesn’t wear a watch. He decides what time it is. Outer space exists because it's afraid to be in the same space with Einstein. If Einstein stares at two plus two equals four for a second, the answer will transform to two plus two equals minus eight.




Bio: Chuck Taylor does photography, children's magic shows, fiction, and poetry. He is currently unemployed and is enjoying the trip as his canoe moves toward going over the waterfall.