No, I don't go as far back as Lyons tes shops. This is on one of the
Japanese Ways that go back three hundred years or so.
ENTRY TO THE TEA-ROOM
Bent low
I slide into the tea-room,
move carefully towards the alcove
in a corner;
lower to my knees, bow fully before it on the floor
and meditate on the ikebana there.
In the slender ceramic vase
sprouts a branch abundant with red berries
against a copper foliage
sprinkled with pearls of dew.
After another, slighter bow,
I take my place beside
the guest who entered before me.
We all sit on four and a half
tatami mats,
backs to the shoji
that close the tea-room off
from the garden.
bw
James
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