The Water-Spirit

This is the third in a series of collaborative posts highlighting the relationship between poetry and painting.

Moving deeper into our insights, we can now ask ourselves: Are we reading the poem or is the poem reading us? Are we looking at the painting, or is the painting looking at us? Being aware of this allows us to strip the work of art of our concepts and ideas, our beliefs, and opens us to how we actually understand the world--with what we've been told, or with what we have found out for ourselves through experience. Poems and paintings do not try to fool us but we certainly try to outsmart them.

One day a monk arrived at a Zen monastery and asked Master Xuansha, 'How am I supposed to enter?'

Master Xuansha replied, 'Do you hear the sound of the murmuring stream?'

'Yes' he said.

'That is how you enter,' Master Xuansha said, and walked away.

The excerpt in the post was taken from the book The Uninitiated (link in bio) and the original artwork was composed by @indrebeinarte on the theme of the selected poem.

Please see Indre's bio at the end of the post to learn more about her work.

To learn more about my poetry, please consult the links on my bio page.

**Monochrome ink painting is the basis of Indre's artistic expression.  It allows her to capture the essence of an object, leaving aside unnecessary details, finding depth in simplicity, in emptiness, and in unfilled space.  In her work, she strives to embody the principles of East Asian aesthetics, which are manifested in her works through minimalist compositions, subtlety, and calligraphic strokes.**

Douglas Thornton