Sunday, September 2, 2007

My Favorite Ancient Oriental Inebriate

Li Po. He's the Man:

"Past and present do not differ,
both must reach understanding
but I, though old, yet have not
reached understanding; "

Does he not rock?

"youngsters, what have you to say?
for you in your time will also
change to be old men of the hills."

(from My Wine Cup Beside) Honestly, I'd give my left fallopian tube to write like that.
And a poem of night, wine, desire and dancing...

"Alone and Drinking under the Moon"

"Amongst the flowers I
am alone with my pot of wine
drinking by myself; then lifting
my cup I asked the moon
to drink with me, its reflection
and mine in the wine cup, just
the three of us;"

Did E.D. read Li Po? Or did she channel him?
Some historian with finely matted brain cells would know. I don't. But this music needs to get out of the dust jackets and into the firmament.

"........I sit and sing
and it is as if the moon
accompanies me; then if I
dance, it is my shadow that
dances along with me;..."

There are few folks that can foil this mess of modern life.
My Li Po story. (Everyone has one about their favorite celebrity, right? And Li Po is The Man.) I went to the MFA in Boston, MA, and wandered into the Asian exhibit. On the wall was a glass case with a wire hanging down and at the end of it, a hook. The title of the work was portrait of Li Po, and I don't know whether it said "Ancient Oriental Inebriate" or whether my brainiac supplied that. But I stood there, gazing at this seemingly empty case, for awhile. Finally, defeated, I'm like, I do not understand. There are no vibes, no intuition or cognition happening.

Then looked down. At the bottom of the DISPLAY case was a note saying picture removed for photographing.
LI PO RULES!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I love the idea of an ancient oriental inebriate! fun to say. Nice blog! Thanks for bopping over to mine,

GalleryJuana said...

I would have thought that the hanging hook was modern art and shook my head too! Ha .. Ha.!