How to Cook Rice

Measure two handfuls for a prosperous man.

Place in pot and wash by rubbing palms together

as if you can’t quite get yourself to pray, or

by squeezing it in one fist. Wash

several times to get rid of the cloudy water;

when you are too high in Heaven, looking down

at the clouds, you can’t see what’s precious below.

Rinse with cold water and keep enough so that

it will barely cover your hand placed on the rice.

Don’t use hot water, there are metallic diseases

colliding in it. This method of measuring water will work

regardless of the size of the pot; if the pot is large,

use both hands palms down as if to pat your own belly.

Now place on high heat without cover and cook

until the water has been boiled away except in craters

resembling those of the moon, important

in ancient times for growing rice. Now place lid on top

and reduce heat to medium, go read your newspaper

until you get to the comics, then come back and turn it down to low.

The heat has been gradually traveling from the outside

to the inside of the rice, giving it texture;

a similar thing happens with people, I suppose.

Go back to your newspaper, finish the comics, and read

the financial page. Now the rice is done, but before

you eat, consider the peasant who arcs in leech-infested

paddies and who carefully plants the rice seedlings

one by one; on this night, you are eating better than he.

If you still don’t know how to cook rice, buy a Japanese

automatic rice cooker; it makes perfect rice every time!

Source: Water Chasing Water (Kaya Press, 2013)