Bubble-up Monk © 2011 Wings
Poems in Three Parts
1
Oh on an early morning I think I shall live forever!
I am wrapped in my joyful flesh
As the grass is wrapped in its clouds of green.
2
Rising from a bed where I dreamt
Of long rides past castles and hot coals
The sun lies happily on my knees;
I have suffered and survived the night
Bathed in dark water like any blade of grass.
3
The strong leaves of the box-elder tree
Plunging in the wind call us to disappear
Into the wilds of the universe
Where we shall sit at the foot of a plant
And live forever like the dust.
~Robert Bly
Story Behind the Photograph From the Photographer:
Bubble up Monk took place within the Angkor Wat Complex out side of Siem Reap at night. This young monk is plainly in the middle of a bath, standing up. I was interested in the Monks because there are Elders that are functioning as leaders. During the Killing Fields that took place 34 years back, the monks were forced to denounce Buddhism or die. Many of the elder Monks died.
As the reconstruction of Cambodia continues to build many young people have taken to the orange robes for survival being that work, food, and a place to live in can be scarce and the world beyond the community, lawless. One might become a monk because there is no other alternative or place of refuge. In fact if there is a better option many move out and explore it, but then when all fails they re-enter the order.
Buddhism today is a community of young boys learning the rights and wrongs Buddha ordained as proper conduct. A new shaved head and removal of all facial hair is a symbolic welcoming moment back in to the Buddhist order. Being a teenager with raging hormones is not an easy path without adult guidance. But in a community aging between 4 to 24, much is questioned and worked out for the good.
~Wings
About the Photographer
Wings hails from New York in the United States. You may find his work on 1x.com.
I’ve come to realize that my art has diversity with powerful individual vision, that chronicles the life of individuals. People draw me into their lives to tell their story to anyone willing to listen and validate their reason for living. My attraction to story telling grew as my life developed behind a camera. I discovered that its not how a photographer looks at the world that is important, its their relationship with their fellow human beings and these moments of connectivity that are frozen in time for all to see. Last thought for the photographer, "Whatever you look to see outside, is waiting inside you".
~Wings
