Z is for Zen in a Zig Zag Life

Day 26 of Blogging from A to Z.  Today’s letter is Z

Z is for Zen in a Zig Zag Life

zig zag stop start then
deep breath – no help – start again
pour wine – chop carrots

© Perle Champion

My path of late feels like an undisciplined zig zag run through an obstacle course that is obviously of myown making.  The only place where I really get into the moment, the zazen, is when involved in a kitchen chore, and occasionally in the midst of writing or painting.

The thing about the kitchen chore is there is immediate satisfaction.  I slice and dice and transform the carrot, onion and other veg in to shapes of my design.  I mix and put dough in the oven and soon have a steaming loaf of bread.

The thing with my writing and painting is there is no immediacy.  I paint or write for hours and it never quite feels done.  I drop one piece to begin another and in the end, I have 10 paintings half done; 2 novels unedited; and numerous essays that don’t quite hit the mark.

Does anyone else feel that scattered?

Y is for Yapness for Shiny Yellow Yag

Day 25 of Blogging from A to Z.  Today’s letter is Y

Y is for Yapness for Shiny Yellow Yag

the myth - shiny yag
siren call to soul’s yapness
that yellow brick road

© Copyright Perle Champion

The idea of the yellow brick road leading us to the answer is a myth. 

The scarecrow is to Dorothy what the Cheshire cat is to Alice.  

The message is that which fork in the road to take is her decision.  

There’s no right or wrong.  The trick is to know where you’re going.

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Glossary

• Yag – synthetic diamond
• Yapness – hunger

X is for Xylan, Xylose, Xerarch, Xerosere

Day 24 of Blogging from A to Z.  Today’s letter is X

X is for Xylan, Xylose, Xerarch, Xerosere

as meridies beatsthe landscape's xerarch creepstoward xerosere as

sweet xylan begets
sweet nourishing xylose so
replacing dew’s kiss

Nature fascinates in its determined survival. Plants grow in the most unlikely places. 

They didn’t sprout full blown in the deserts, mountains, seas, and places yet discovered; they evolved as determined by the availability of light, water and surface.

The very rocks and pavements of humans eventually gives way to nature’s determination to bloom where she chooses.

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Note: Xerosere is a plant succession which is limited by water availability. It includes the different stages in a xerarch succession. Xerarch succession of ecological communities originated in extremely dry situation such as sand deserts, sand dunes, salt deserts, rock deserts etc. A xerosere may include lithoseres (on rock) and psammoseres (on sand).

Glossary

• xylan - water-soluble, polysaccharide found in plant cell walls and yielding xylose upon hydrolysis
• xylose - a sugar of the pentose class that occurs widely in plants, especially as a component of hemicelluloses.
• xerarch – originating in a dry habitat as ecological succession
• xerosere – dry habitat as a desert

W is for Words Well Written

Day 23 of Blogging from A to Z.  Today’s letter is W

W is for Words Well Written

the meekest takes pen
in hand – swords beware their steel
the well written word

© Perle Champion

As a citizen of the U.S., I appreciate my right to say and write what I choose.  In this and many countries of the West, we needn’t fear being jailed for something as simple as a poem. 

Many countries in the world still jail and or execute dissident writers. 

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Follow the link below to a list of writers imprisoned for writing their truths.

• Kazakhstan - The Poet  journalist and activist Aron Atabek has been in prison since 2007 and has spent much of his incarceration in solitary confinement.
• China – Liu Xia is a poet, artist, and founding member of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre. She has been held in her Beijing apartment without access to phones, internet, doctors of her choice, or visitors

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/21/national-poetry-day-dissident-poets-pen