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MARC OLMSTED (poetry) / MICHAEL J. BRODERICK (photos)

 

 

Turquoise Lake: Notebooks/Snapshots in Tibet

 

 

Michael Broderick (l) and Marc Olmsted (r)

 

Michael was my roommate on this 20-day pilgrimage, which was led by Lama Yeshe Wangmo (white Canadian woman lama enthroned by Tharchin Rinpoche) and scholar Dr. Gyurme Dorje to the pilgrimage sites of Yeshe Tsogyal, main consort of Padmasambha (establisher of Tibetan Buddhism 8th Centruy AD). Yeshe Tsogyal’s attainment was considered equal to Padmasambhava's.

 

––Marc Olmsted

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LEPER FINGERS IN MY TEA

 

 Yeshe Tsogyal,

  movie-star gorgeous

  princess-saint of

      Tibet,

           made love to

   a leper in

  compassionate

heart - he served

  her tea & his fingers

   broke off in the cup –

 she drank it

  anyway

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DROLMA

 

Drolma – half-Tibetan girl – meets me in Chengdu with “Mr. Marc Olmsted” sign – her English is very good in Converse tennis shoes and Toni Basil rock video “Oh Ricky You’re So Fine” cheerleader look – punk nostalgia – Drolma has me write down the word “nostalgia” – She says I’m the punk, all in black – her favorite singer: deathrocker Marilyn Manson “I have all his albums,” she says.  “Me, too,” I reply.

 

10/10/10

 

 

 

 

CAT ANGELS

 

The nuns’ cat visits me during guru yoga in shrine room -

Protector kitten runs up and lets me pet it in Samye’s wrathful chamber of ego’s doom -

& inside the Potola on a ledge, grey kitten announcing good fortune w/ plaintive mews

 

10/12

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TSINGTAO BEER & RED BULL BILLBOARDS

 

The girl in hotel staff uniform

outside post-China Samye Monastery

snaps a bubble of gum

 

10/13

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monk Pounding Drum

 

The Protectors’

room

a dark groan

of bliss

 

10/14

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Samye

 

In one corner

the Protectoress

of the Temple

Tsimara

red hand in

threatening

gesture

face hidden

with

seeming lampshade

– scary

 

10/4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mindroling

 

We are kept

from my teacher’s monastery

by Chinese police-

an “incident” Sept. 19th –

closed for “patriotic re-education.”

 

10/18

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REST STOP

 

A billboard of

the sky

in the sky

by the gas station

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RIDING AGAINST SNOWPEAKED MTS

 

Tibetan motorcycle boy

wears his hotel

uniform to work

 

10/18

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOT YET

 

past Turquoise Lake which

w/ angled mountain light

is really turquoise –

prophecy says

if it dries up

Tibet

is truly lost

 

10/21

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WOOD MITTENS

 

Bowing pilgrims

clacking with wood mittens

full body prostrations

all the way to the Jokhang Temple

(inside statue of Buddha)

arriving down urban street gutters

& outside dusty roads

 

10/26

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TIBETAN HIGHWAY PATROL

 

lifesize

Chinese

traffic cop

plastic “Big Boy”

hamburger

deity

reminds

you not to speed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Close your mouth

when you chew –

oh, it’s you, cow.

 

10/26