Change Of State / PS Art Space / 18th June - 2nd July 2016

 

The making of tea

is more than simple politics

it is a change of state,

a move to original meaning.

 

The water in the urn

is captive cloud

 

unable to remember

which region of sky

it roamed.

 

When boiled it raises

tiny fists, its lips

smack of freedom

 

the cry of the kettle

is memory returning;

be caught in its revolution

 

shape shift to steam,

arise and mentor

the atmosphere

above your city.

 

2.

A teapot is a charm

against melancholy.

 

Let it occupy the bench, keep

other utensils from interfering

with its small acre of plenty

 

note the way it curves space,

bends time out of linearity.

 

It contains your childhood

and your dotage

 

it has already grieved

your passing, celebrated

your otherness

 

it holds your temporality

in its belly, is patient

with your clumsy grip

 

the fumble of years

that count themselves

on handfuls of fingers.

 

The teapot takes a rounder

view of your achievements

 

offers its handle for you

to pour yourself with cheerful

sufficiency into the vessel

of your life.

 

3.

Somewhere between Burma

and China a tree grows

on a mountainside.

 

The sunlight slants

the same way it did

in the Tang dynasty.

 

The air is more awake

around Camellia sinensis,

the leaves full of instructions

to every nation.

 

The West drinks the East.

What can we make

of such medicine?

 

The beverage says,

speak to one another.

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Jennifer Kornberger