Tuesday 15 March 2011

Three Hares


Full Circle
In ancient China
the moon is made of figured silk,
woven with the pattern of galloping hares,
three conjoined by a single ear,
together whole.
An eternal circle
embroidered on bolts of cloth,
carried by camel through singing sands,
the booming dunes of wind-whipped
Xhiang Sha Wan,
where Silk Road
frays to quick oasis, and
wondering artists paint three hares

on sacred temple cavern walls.
The Buddha’s wheel
of life and death
rolls through Persia’s burning plains,
eclipses sere, salt-desert suns: a brazen tray
engraved with hares, a stamped,
Islamic copper coin.
Crossing rivers, bridging rifts
in hidden groves of moss and stone,
these three hares chased on Jewish tombs
and makeshift tabernacle roofs,
the blackened beams
of Dartmoor churches
at the edges of the earth, bear
a trinity of hares, three in one, the risen son,

beneath a moon that pins
the universal oceans.
The poem is by Deborah Harvey. I did the picture because it's a hares time of year. Here are more trinities of hares.

3 comments:

  1. It's a lovely symbol, whatever its meaning is. Your drawing is quite nice too.

    Viewing some of the cathedral roof bosses referenced in your link, brought to mind this particularly interesting grotesque on the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., the story behind which can be found here.

    Melissa XX

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  2. I love seeing hares, Dru. I've more about in recent years, but they're still a rare sight.

    I like the design!

    Lucy

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  3. Now I need to decipher a meaning...

    ReplyDelete