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Tea Service: Needle Eye

from Tea Service: Needle Eye by S. Hollis Mickey

/

lyrics

the needle threads the eye
with a loop
time pulls through
quickening

the needle is sharp
and sweet and perfectly
pointed

the needle threads the eye
with a loop
time pulls through

the eye is open
waking or not waking
from a dream
of being some other part
and not a lonely eye

the needle is sharp
and sweet and perfectly
sews the eye
and time together
into this moment

where I am now
and you
you are the eye
are you not

The time has come for you to take a sip of your tea
if you have not. You might close both your eyes
so that you might use all your other senses.
Notice the feel, the sound, the scent, the flavor
as you sip. Without the eye what does the tea become as it becomes a part of you
as you drink it into you?

the eye is open
waking or not waking
it may be dark
or dawn but the adumbration
does not matter

the eye is open
taking in the light
into the eye
eyeing the world
threaded through time

the loop of the red
thread sews together
the opening and closing
of one moment into the next
the duration of being
an eye

The time now for another sip or two. Eyes open or closed.
Your body being a body. Your eyes being eyes.
The cup being warm. The tea being tea.
You may feel the warmth of the present
wash over your body being a body
your eye being an eye. You may feel the
warm present of now wash into the warm
present of next and next. Moment after moment.
The tea as a thread to pull you through each loop.

where the eye is
is now or here
eyeing the world
as it becomes always
and already again
as the needle pulls
time through

a part of the body
and its own organ
the eye sees itself
through the
red thread of time
and you
you are the eye
are you not
you see yourself
in this moment
alone and a part
of a whole world


Breathe a little deeper still
into the time into the body
exhale past and future at once
you might eat now if you have not
already or if you want to, not because I say,
because you are the eye are you not?
eyes open or closed you are eating the needles
of wild northern spruce sprouted in spring
a brilliant chartreuse adumbrate of growth
which darkens and hardens into branches
each year these spruce needle tips tip out
again sharp and sweet and perfectly pointed for becoming
for becoming more and more tree.
How is your tea? As you eat these
spruce needles and sip your tea
how are you presently becoming
what growth is growing sharp and sweet
and perfectly

the thread pulls through
time after time
the wondrous seeing of
just right now as the past is sewn into future
the eye eyes itself
as a part of this embroidery
piercing and yet also soft
as only the persistent present can be
one moment into the next

the needle threads the eye
with a loop
time pulls through
quickening

and yet at exactly at
the same measure as seeing
up down up down of the needle
light and red and sweet

Breathe a little deeper still
still still drink the rest of your tea. another sip
or another however many sips
to get to the bottom of your cup
drink at the measure of seeing
lifting the cup down up up down
light and sweet. And when you have the tea contained within you
eye the bottom of the cup
turn it out onto a plate or bowl.
Eye the tea leaves. What shape do you see
What pulls through in this moment
Is it a boat? A vessel to carry you from past into future? Is it a flame to burn what is no longer needed into what may become? Is it a tree with roots that reach into the pressed decay of years before to reach up to light of years to come? Is it an eye to see, to see the eye itself. To see yourself, because you are the eye are you not?
Whatever you see or do not see? What can you make of this moment to lift you into the next light and sharp and perfectly sweet?


the eye is open
waking or not waking
from a dream
of being some other part
and not a lonely eye

The eye is where the eye
is which is here
now in this moment still
as the moment passes
pulls through into the next
red thread looping
infinite loops
to sew past and future
together
not a lonely eye
but a part of a whole
body a whole world
of being
here
and now

credits

from Tea Service: Needle Eye, released September 3, 2021
special thanks to Mahavir

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all rights reserved

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about

S. Hollis Mickey image

S. Hollis Mickey Anchorage, Alaska

S. Hollis Mickey is an interdisciplinary artist working in text, textiles, sculpture, performance, and installation.

As a disabled artist, her work is created through the embodied experience of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.

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