Rocks at the Temple

A couple weeks ago, I visited Ryoan-ji, a Zen temple in Kyoto. I had a feeling of deja-vu around the ponds on the temple grounds, I think I must have visited a place that looked similar when I was younger.

There were several birds about. Three geese:

And a heron:

It was another intensely hot day. Everyone took off their shoes and went inside to sit and look at the temple's famous Zen rock garden.

The temple was originally built in the 15th century but after several fires the current rock garden dates from the late 18th century. And it's just rocks, arranged in a rectangular enclosure with raked pebbles.

I sat contemplating it for some time. There are different interpretations for what the garden symbolises. I found myself at first thinking of islands and then of planets. There's something Lynchian about them and I was reminded of Twin Peaks season three.

The meaning of "Ryoan-ji", "Temple of the Dragon at Peace", also makes me think of the rocks as the curling back of a partially submerged dragon.

The temple itself is also beautiful.

Twitter Sonnet #1460

Ironic magnet metal turns about.
The streets were choked with precious stones and hay.
The pirates plunder sources, re and out.
An island sinks a planet any day.
The softest gloves were hard against the beef.
For cheaper shorts the fighters traded blood.
A keel would scratch a message 'long the reef.
A hand has dropped the anchor deep in mud.
The fingers folded back creating toes.
The purchase yields a branch before a tree.
A nodding sparked consent along the rows.
A word evokes the need to search the sea.
Renewal kicks the show beyond another year.
And so we count the thousandth bottled beer.