so many elbows

Where I’m From

           a poem by Vicki Patschke

I’m from family 

A family of eight

Or eight times eight 

When you counted the heads

Of friends and visitors

And always the pets —

Dogs, cats, rabbits, 

guinea pig, hamster, mice

parakeets, turtles, snails

and one bow-legged duck

Our family of eight

Squeezed into cars

And crowded trains

Shoulder to shoulder

Elbow to elbow

Heart to heart

At happy crowded tables

We passed the potatoes

Helped with homework 

And dealt the cards

Instant friends

Instant foes 

Always racing

To finish first 

To claim the sofa

To claim the last bite

Always sharing 

Hand-me-downs

of used clothes 

of thumb-smeared books

of opinions and advice

Our family of eight

Now grown and scattered

With empty spaces between us

Separated by gaps

of time and place

of experiences

of philosophy

But wherever we turn

We will always be

From our family of eight

Shoulder to shoulder

Elbow to elbow

Heart to heart

let them eat grass

It's customary in Japan to eat a rice porridge called nanakusa-gayu (literal translation: seven-grass rice porridge) on January 7th, the Festival of Seven Herbs. You can find a chart that lists which seven "grasses" (herbs) go into the porridge at this Wikipedia link, which also explains that "The seventh of the first month has been an important Japanese festival since ancient times. The custom of eating nanakusa-gayu on this day, to bring longevity and health, developed in Japan from a similar ancient Chinese custom, intended to ward off evil. Since there is little green at that time of the year, the young green herbs bring color to the table and eating them suits the spirit of the New Year."

Yesterday it became clear that my husband had come down with a serious chest cold, so I made a thin version of a smooth green vegetable soup I often make for him. And since it also happened to be the day of the Festival of Seven Herbs, I made a game out of including exactly seven green plants in the soup.  Specifically: spinach, shiso leaves, parsley, green onions, celery, broccoli, and iso-nori (a laver-like seaweed that grows on rocks), all blended into a base of chicken broth. It isn't seven-herbs rice porridge, but it's really quite tasty.

green, but not

The snow does not let up, and neither does my compulsion to paint green things.  But as I was painting these traditional Japanese tea-picking baskets, I decided to stop short of depicting them filled with tea leaves. Call it the moment before the tea-pickers sling the baskets over their shoulders and begin work for the day. Or maybe the baskets have just been emptied. Somehow the complexity of the weave of the baskets made me reluctant to clutter the image with any further ink or color. The green is there in spirit, though. I can see it if I try. And I can smell the freshly picked tea leaves.

I chose the words Chatsumi-Uta (tea picking song) to accompany the image. It hints of yet another sensual stimulation which isn't actually depicted here. Chatsumi-uta were songs that the tea-pickers sang to bring rhythm to their monotonous task. There's a rather charming haiku by Kobayashi Issa that goes Akubi ni mo/ fushi no tsukitaru/ chatsumi kana (Even while yawning/ she keeps the tune/ tea picking). [translation by David G. Lanoue]