Ise - Poem

Cross Currents, Fall, 2002 by Michel Englebert

ISE. (Poetry)

MICHEL ENGLEBERT

for S. Yamashita

There is a secret to it: a distinction made between the meditation point
and the point of the meditation. Twice every generation the craftsmen
who dismantle Ise Shrine assemble and refresh themselves with yellow
cypress

to remember from the ground up what it takes to make walls and a roof
fit for a god to believe in. No truss: its own weight holds the roof
down; and the width of a carpenter's finger's sufficient to measure
how much gap to leave

between roofbeam and column so when the plank walls shrink the beams
can lock and settle in their proper place. And when you understand
that much about the habits of cut lumber, what do you need with
paradise? It is here: hira hozo.

Michel Englebert was born in Congo, raised in Belgium, educated in California, and has lived and worked in Japan, Malaysia, and Greece. He is currently living in South Korea where he is working on an American epic.