04

Exchanging Greetings With The Wind

This clear wind—what kind of thing is it?

Something you can love but never name,

it goes wherever it goes, like a noble sage,

fills grasses and trees with lovely sounds.

We set out wandering without any purpose,

and then, letting our lone boat drift askew,

we’re midstream on our backs, gazing into

sky and exchanging greeting with wind.

Offering a toast to water spread boundless

away, I savor this indifference we share,

and all the way home, along both rivers,

clouds and water shimmer into the night.

— Su Tung-p’o, translated by David Hinton in Mountain Home: The Wilderness Poetry Of Ancient China, New Directions Publishing

Thank you for calling The Botanarchy Hotline. The Botanarchy Hotline is medicine disguised as a poem, delivered through the portal of your phone. It’s a ham-radio séance between you and the living Earth, for those ready to be bewildered back to life.

The transmission at the end of your telephone line is Episode 4: Exchanging Greetings With The Wind. It’s the 6th week of Spring, Matilija Poppies are pirouetting along the LA river, and today we’re gonna pull up a barstool next to the wind, tip our hat in an affable salute, and see if the wind will greet us back.

It is said that in spring, the Bluegreen Dragon Of The East blows the eight winds into the earth and brings forth a thousand flowers. It can also be said that the Eight Winds are the invisible forces animating the entirety of creation. But don’t take from me. Here’s what Tang Dynasty Poet Li Qiao has to say about it:

Untying three Autumn leaves,

Blossoming February flowers.

Thousands of feet of waves,

Ten thousand bamboo trees sway.

How can one invisible force manifest itself in such a dazzling array of forms? To understand the pluripotent possibility of wind, we must first understand this season that it’s blowing through.

(Cont’d below)

Book Rec: Mountain Home: The Wilderness Poetry Of Ancient China, David Hinton