Radical Daffodils

Surf Buddha

radicaldaffodils — Fri, 04 May 2007 17:19:01 +0000

Delivered from poets.org, and quoted on Ministare without discussion and Don’t Eat Alone with some discussion:

Surf Buddha
by Matthew Lippman

There is a sandalwood Buddha on the desk that has my stomach
and I don’t suppose to call myself a Buddha
or even pretend to know much about Buddhist whirlings
but Rachel gave me the thing and it’s got my belly
the one my father has got
and the one his father had
and I know this bulge the way I know my name,
and can’t believe I’ve become the language of fat
that the boys in my family have kept quiet.

So I encourage my stomach out into the world,
rub it on a daily basis and think
that if I ever become a religious man
there would be god and glory to find there,
my rib cage distended,
my love of ice cream as sweet as my love of Rachel

who put the Buddha in my palm a month after we met and said, have this,
and I said, I already have this,
my hands in motion around my belly button and then today
noticed for the first time that the little bastard has got some serious nipples on him,
thank god, and breasts too,
he’s the perfect kind of godlike statuette
even if I am a Jew

but the days have been glorious and people die in truck crashes
and men beat their wives and flowers bloom purple
and the cardinal I’ve named Jack always comes around my way at this time,
4:40 in Baldwin on the Island,
Wes Montgomery on the Sony
and I don’t know if it’s his song Cariba or the wind on my swollen toes
that makes me pick up the little guy, stick him in my mouth,
swirl him around between teeth and cheek,
place him on the edge of my tongue and let him surf there,
through the neighborhood of my white heat,
on the curl of my pink waves.

The contrast between the two blogger’s takes on this poem is interesting to me. Rev. Dennison describes it as “a Taste of Self Esteem,” whereas Milton sees the language of fat as a bad thing. I’m more inclined to the Reverend’s way of viewing the poem; it is a taste of self esteem. I may do a critical reading of this poem, later. For now, I thought it was worth sharing without much commentary.

Oh, yes

radicaldaffodils — Tue, 01 May 2007 19:38:00 +0000

It’s May, it’s May, the lusty month of May…

Merry Beltane. I must remember to go home and light my candle that houses Brighid’s fire tonight.

Today’s Musings

radicaldaffodils — Tue, 01 May 2007 19:22:00 +0000

I’m perusing my bloglines account and saw this post on “A Minister’s Musings.” I think I may want to expand the thinking I expressed in the comments, but right now my knee aches and I’m just not in the mood for deep thinking. The t-shirt mentioned in that post:

“I have the body of a god. Unfortunately, it’s the Buddha.”

Like many things, this “saying” is a jumping-off point for a discussion of body image. Why is having the Buddha’s shape (or, more accurately, as pointed out by RevWik, Hotei’s shape*) automatically “unfortunate”? If it’s the body of a god, doesn’t that imply a sort of “greatness” to that body? I could probably come up with a handful of myths where the god’s body failed them in some way, but it would take some work. Fenris Wolf biting off Tyr’s hand doesn’t count, either.

All in all, it reminds me of another t-shirt about which I have similarly ambivalent-leaning-toward-positive feelings: “I’m in shape. Round is a shape.”

Well. It certainly is.

* This is not the best link in the world, but as mentioned above I’m really not in the mood to go poking around just at the moment.

In the beginning

radicaldaffodils — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 17:25:00 +0000

Was the Word, or so one group’s holy book says. There will be words to come, here, just as soon as I figure out what purpose those words will serve.