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Lookit!

I’ve got one of these: …

dragonsloyaltyaward

I’m not sure what it means yet, but I’m willing to take it on …

“Yeh Kung-tzu was a man who loved dragons.   He studied dragon lore and decorated his home with paintings and statues of dragons.   He would talk on and on about dragons to anyone who would listen.   One day a dragon heard about Yeh Kung-tzu and thought, how lovely that this man appreciates us.   It would surely make him happy to meet a true dragon.   The kindly dragon flew to Yeh Kung-tzu’s house and went inside, to find Yeh Kung-tzu asleep.   Then Yeh Kung-tzu woke up and saw the dragon coiled by his bed, its scales and teeth glittering in the moonlight.   And Yeh Kung-tzu screamed in terror.   Before the dragon could introduce himself, Yeh Kung-tzu grabbed a sword and lunged at the dragon.   The dragon flew away.”

Dogen said in Funkanzazengi, “I beseech you, learn through experience, do not become so accustomed to images that you are dismayed by the true dragon.”   So I will gladly accept this award if it be recognition that poetry/writing is a means of facing the dragon, and that loyalty to the dragon means ‘eyes wide open’.   This is more than recognising it (recognising is only done with white elephants in rooms), this is living with it, this is breathing its acrid stench, this is keeping your hand on the scales even though the instinct is to vomit.   This is staying with it – bound to the mast – despite the fact that it’s beautiful eyes lure you to the rocks.   This is staying with it EVEN THOUGH YOU DOUBT IT IS THERE AT ALL.   It is ugly, it is beautiful, it is evanescent – loyalty to it is cultivation of courage, compassion and wisdom // Sylvia Plath, Allen Ginsberg and William Carlos Williams …

… I’m so excited now I’m going to do a Halle Berry: I’d like to thank my muse (in all her terrible guises); I’d like to thank my Mum who showed me how to stay true to life; I’d like to thank my Nan who initiated me in how to be; I’d like to thank my father who manifested the spectre of pointlessness; many thanks to Tazein Mirza Saad at http://transcendingbordersblog.wordpress.com/ for the nom: Tazein has made it the mission of her blog to do a lot of her own facing the dragon on behalf of others, she has wide open-eyed love for the world.

The rules are:

  • Display the Award Certificate – natch
  • Declare your award with a written post and link to whoever offered your award – doing and done; thanks again Tazein
  • Nominate further awards to deserving bloggers and let them know what you’ve done – watch out, here comes a thunder roll right across the sky and down behind the hills!
  • Declare seven ‘dragons’ which you have learnt through direct experience –

 

    1. you know you’re gonna have to face it you’re addicted to love – 16
    2. I’ve known always when I have arrived in my life – it’s unmistakable – but I have been terrible at knowing when to get off; I never know when to get off – backseat
    3. I stopped thinking I was ten years younger than I was when I started working in my career full time; now I count how many years I have left before I can be young again – becoming old
    4. not ‘seawrecked’ not ‘marooned’ not ‘despair’ and certainly not ‘drowning’; but never entirely convinced that it’s not any of these either – buoying
    5. the most staggeringly beautiful (and useful) lessons in life are those which I seem to teach to myself mostly because they were right under my nose all the time and not because I am a great teacher – clues
    6. now all I’ve got to do is stop enough to actually do it; it helps a bit when everything comes crashing down by itself; actually it doesn’t; actually it makes no difference either way; unless I sit still – “don’t move / just die / over and over … / be true to / yourself / and don’t move” // – Suzuki Roshi
    7.  the beauty of watching Hammer Horror films on tv late at night with the sound down was that the drama happened by atmosphere rather than script; how else would a young man learn about love in this world too full of plenty … – footfall

My nominations are:

  • Bruce Ruston is more like a phoenix than a dragon, he recreates himself often and continuously in search of his muse and himself
  • Suzy Blue is as constant as the beach whose sky inexorably passes through all of its seasons
  • Omrum opens her eyes every morning and finds herself yet deeper into the same life than she was the morning before
  • Johnny Crabcakes can distill an evening universe down into a few delicately-put-together word-strokes that float around on the water
  • Bussokuseki learns all the lessons he needs in life from observing that very life that his children give back to him by their being
  • Dizzy is a whole audience by herself – she really is – but she has let go the tail of her dragon and I would like to encourage her to come back
  • Singing Pigs has advice about pigs in education which could easily apply to dragons: “Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.”
  • Assailedteacher will not stop shouting that the Emperor (the Pharaoh) has no clothes no matter how much he is banned shushed
  • Waywardspirit is a true dragon chaser, she won’t leave the bloody thing alone, it tries to hide in all sorts of places and she just seeks it out
  • Lazywednesdays creates her own dragons in the very act of writing ‘a quiet place to create an escape’
  • Emina Redzic just writes the most beautifully observed pieces from time and land passed, now
  • Sunny Days in DC is one of the few people who can consistently laugh at her dragons … AND BE FUNNY ABOUT IT; I think she is a dragon but she’s house-trained
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