ZEN OF HOUSEWORK

ZEN OF HOUSEWORK

BY AL ZOLYNAS

I look over my own shoulder

down my arms

to where they disappear under water

into hands inside pink rubber gloves

moiling among dinner dishes.

My hands lift a wine glass,

holding it by the stem and under the bowl.

It breaks the surface

like a chalice

rising from a medieval lake.

Full of the grey wine

of domesticity, the glass floats

to the level of my eyes.

Behind it, through the window

above the sink, the sun, among

a ceremony of sparrows and bare branches,

is setting in Western America.

I can see thousands of droplets

of steam—each a tiny spectrum—rising

from my goblet of grey wine.

They sway, changing directions

constantly—like a school of playful fish,

or like the sheer curtain

on the window to another world.

Ah, grey sacrament of the mundane!

In the life of California poet Al Zolynas, a moment of activity, namely, washing dishes, and the moment of the poem itself are not separated, and we can even imagine that he talks to himself washing dishes and that a tape has recorded his words. This would be a new kind of coping with time, though we know that composition is an integral part of poetry, and that direct reaction to events is rather rare and the poet wrote the poem at another point of time.

We are thus inclined to consider this poem a composition on the subject of washing dishes, with a consciously maintained illusion of the present tense. In fact housework  is constantly emphasized throughout the poem with nearly synonymous words, such as “moiling,” “domesticity,” and “mundane" and repetitions of "grey".  It has some striking imageries too like wine glass rising like a chalice from a medieval lake.

This is a beautiful and accessible poem and it shows how musings on such a mundane chore like dish washing can be turned into work of art. The poem reminds me of Irish poet Thomas Moore's words -"The ordinary acts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest." 

Al Zolynas spent his boyhood in Australia before coming to the United States when he was 15. He taught literature and writing at Alliant International University . He  is also an  experienced Zen practitioner.