96

Tanyol / Christie

2This is a cracked vase which long ago a potter’s hand raised into the air you could see daylight from inside a detail I’d forgotten

This is a shapely vase, like feet that rapidly shift to the rhythm of music and dance like rippling satin that covers the bosom and stirs

3This is a dragon-shaped vase, the inside conveys Tao’s laughter only the wild bamboos Li Po brought back from the house of the Tao master whom he sought but never found look good in this vase

This is a tipsy-looking vase of jade and not distant as Pound’s Cathay but just as near

4This is a dark vase, inside the rank smell of forgotten flowers

5This is a vase full of pain reflecting the emptiness of a house veiled in flowers of gauze