Hokohtai

. . . Smoke is coming out
from all your joints
There is a big plate of water on your head and
razor blades under your feet
Your eyes are open, but
they don’t see anything,
There is a big eye in the middle of your forehead that mirrors a distant
landscape
Strings are attached to
your joints, you float above the earth, not
moving yourself
Your spirit goes before you-form follows behind
Your sides are pieces
of your body moving out into space

Continued Variation (Performed by Women in her Workshop):

. . . smoke is moving up from your feet,
flowing upward like incense
a light strikes the face from above
now the hair floats back on a river …
the hair floats up in the wind . . .

 

Continued Variation (Performed by Men in her Workshop):

There is a black hole
in your thigh . . . a hole in your chest
From the palm of your hand,
a fish is swImmmg up your arm
You stink of fish
You can watch your own eyes

from the back of your head,

see your own brain
Your back is wet and dirty

crawling with stench
You walk from north to south

but your feet do not do the walking

your eyes walk
The sun moves from east to west,
your eyes become magnetized

by a comet appearing in the east

moving across the sky

 

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Fraleigh, Sondra H. Dancing into Darkness: Butoh, Zen, and Japan. Pittsburgh, Pa: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1999. Print. Page 44 thru 46.