Eric K. Carr
@arszoetica.bsky.social
Intersex poet, writer, tea practitioner, and secular liturgist in Tucson, AZ. @erickcarr on Substack.
I was feeling utterly overwhelmed the other day, stranded for a couple of days at a cabin in the North Carolina mountains after a series of crazy events. I took a walk, and the forest reminded me of the inevitability of change, and the mountain vistas reminded me of how tiny that moment really was.
October 22, 2025 at 6:48 PM
I was feeling utterly overwhelmed the other day, stranded for a couple of days at a cabin in the North Carolina mountains after a series of crazy events. I took a walk, and the forest reminded me of the inevitability of change, and the mountain vistas reminded me of how tiny that moment really was.
Tea lessons in an ancient mountain forest above the Tucson desert was a stroke of fortune in this week of chaos. How healing to have tea beneath pines that have lived far longer than our country has even existed. Our sweets plate was a piece of bark shed from a centuries-old tree. #chanoyu #tea
September 14, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Chabako in Seattle by Seward Park’s giant torii gate with my friends Ophi and Tali. What a beautiful day! I had also planned a memorial tea at a former Japanese internment camp in Canada but had a fairly serious injury. (Thankfully I’m healing up and won’t need surgery.) #teaceremony #chanoyu #tea
September 1, 2025 at 6:10 AM
Chabako in Seattle by Seward Park’s giant torii gate with my friends Ophi and Tali. What a beautiful day! I had also planned a memorial tea at a former Japanese internment camp in Canada but had a fairly serious injury. (Thankfully I’m healing up and won’t need surgery.) #teaceremony #chanoyu #tea
Sen Sōshitsu XV
19 April 1923 – 14 August 2025
Memorial tea this morning by my teacher, Kimon Sōko
19 April 1923 – 14 August 2025
Memorial tea this morning by my teacher, Kimon Sōko
August 14, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Sen Sōshitsu XV
19 April 1923 – 14 August 2025
Memorial tea this morning by my teacher, Kimon Sōko
19 April 1923 – 14 August 2025
Memorial tea this morning by my teacher, Kimon Sōko
#chanoyu for a friend recovering from surgery. Sweets plate is an antique shigaraki saggar. Sweets were yokan made from dried tiger figs and powdered fig leaves from my garden. Shang Dynasty Gu hanaire. Chashaku is “Empty Shell:”
Cicada’s empty shell —
It sang itself
Utterly away
(Bashō)
Cicada’s empty shell —
It sang itself
Utterly away
(Bashō)
August 2, 2025 at 11:58 PM
#chanoyu for a friend recovering from surgery. Sweets plate is an antique shigaraki saggar. Sweets were yokan made from dried tiger figs and powdered fig leaves from my garden. Shang Dynasty Gu hanaire. Chashaku is “Empty Shell:”
Cicada’s empty shell —
It sang itself
Utterly away
(Bashō)
Cicada’s empty shell —
It sang itself
Utterly away
(Bashō)
Celestial tea. Scroll says, “When I scoop water in my hands: the moon.”
Chashaku is named “Magnitude” after the Kevin Valentine haiku:
Canopy of Stars,
The magnitude
Of not knowing
Mizusashi by Kinoto Kuniko. Moon chawan by Alexis Ellis. Poured glass sweets plate.
#chanoyu #teaceremony #haiku
Chashaku is named “Magnitude” after the Kevin Valentine haiku:
Canopy of Stars,
The magnitude
Of not knowing
Mizusashi by Kinoto Kuniko. Moon chawan by Alexis Ellis. Poured glass sweets plate.
#chanoyu #teaceremony #haiku
July 28, 2025 at 7:06 AM
Celestial tea. Scroll says, “When I scoop water in my hands: the moon.”
Chashaku is named “Magnitude” after the Kevin Valentine haiku:
Canopy of Stars,
The magnitude
Of not knowing
Mizusashi by Kinoto Kuniko. Moon chawan by Alexis Ellis. Poured glass sweets plate.
#chanoyu #teaceremony #haiku
Chashaku is named “Magnitude” after the Kevin Valentine haiku:
Canopy of Stars,
The magnitude
Of not knowing
Mizusashi by Kinoto Kuniko. Moon chawan by Alexis Ellis. Poured glass sweets plate.
#chanoyu #teaceremony #haiku
Oh, I hope you get resolution quickly! I’m so sorry. I ended up getting a misonodana in order to do tea for several of my friends who need the extra accessibility. It’s been such a joy to be able to do tea for people who previously couldn’t be guests.
July 25, 2025 at 6:19 AM
Oh, I hope you get resolution quickly! I’m so sorry. I ended up getting a misonodana in order to do tea for several of my friends who need the extra accessibility. It’s been such a joy to be able to do tea for people who previously couldn’t be guests.
Inspired by PakuPakuAn’s “Cool is Tea,” which interrogated the ways we observe ritual during times of radical change, I put together a toriawase of complementary opposites. Saguaro fruit nerikiri on Alaskan slate, Momoyama-era Shigaraki potsherds suspended in a glass chawan by Oshita Kunihiro.
July 23, 2025 at 6:14 AM
Inspired by PakuPakuAn’s “Cool is Tea,” which interrogated the ways we observe ritual during times of radical change, I put together a toriawase of complementary opposites. Saguaro fruit nerikiri on Alaskan slate, Momoyama-era Shigaraki potsherds suspended in a glass chawan by Oshita Kunihiro.
Tanabata candle-lit tea — with a black light and phosphorescent teaware by Kinoto Kuniko and Zeinab Manesh! Afterward we attached our wishes on prayer bells and hung them in the trees in our front yard. #teaceremony #tanabata #chanoyu
July 7, 2025 at 6:59 AM
Tanabata candle-lit tea — with a black light and phosphorescent teaware by Kinoto Kuniko and Zeinab Manesh! Afterward we attached our wishes on prayer bells and hung them in the trees in our front yard. #teaceremony #tanabata #chanoyu
20th anniversary of Brokeback Mountain with writer/producer, Diana Osanna. The young woman next to me had never seen it, because she was a baby when it came out. She couldn’t believe people had ever been killed for being gay. It reminds me that those of us who were out in the 90s were very brave.
June 29, 2025 at 8:29 AM
20th anniversary of Brokeback Mountain with writer/producer, Diana Osanna. The young woman next to me had never seen it, because she was a baby when it came out. She couldn’t believe people had ever been killed for being gay. It reminds me that those of us who were out in the 90s were very brave.
My sensei (Kimon Sōko) came over and made tea for my birthday, mixing traditional, modern, Japanese, and Sonoran. It was a beautiful way to start a new year.
June 26, 2025 at 5:21 PM
My sensei (Kimon Sōko) came over and made tea for my birthday, mixing traditional, modern, Japanese, and Sonoran. It was a beautiful way to start a new year.
#nokings tea, with loads of symbols. Scroll: “Harmonizing Ourselves Comes First.”
Hanaire from the Nobel Peace Plaza in Oslo. Flower is yerba mansa, an indigenous plant from my front yard, used for women’s medicine.
The rains of summer gather together.
How swift it is
Mogami River
-Basho
Hanaire from the Nobel Peace Plaza in Oslo. Flower is yerba mansa, an indigenous plant from my front yard, used for women’s medicine.
The rains of summer gather together.
How swift it is
Mogami River
-Basho
June 15, 2025 at 8:02 AM
#nokings tea, with loads of symbols. Scroll: “Harmonizing Ourselves Comes First.”
Hanaire from the Nobel Peace Plaza in Oslo. Flower is yerba mansa, an indigenous plant from my front yard, used for women’s medicine.
The rains of summer gather together.
How swift it is
Mogami River
-Basho
Hanaire from the Nobel Peace Plaza in Oslo. Flower is yerba mansa, an indigenous plant from my front yard, used for women’s medicine.
The rains of summer gather together.
How swift it is
Mogami River
-Basho
With everything happening I wanted to do tea with resilient things. Shang Dynasty Gu vessel for the hanaire, 12th century chawan, Meiji brazier, a chashaku I carved from a 300-year-old creosote branch, kintsugi mizusashi, and my grandmother’s old cinnabar natsume, nearly 40 years after she passed.❤️🍵
June 9, 2025 at 2:32 AM
With everything happening I wanted to do tea with resilient things. Shang Dynasty Gu vessel for the hanaire, 12th century chawan, Meiji brazier, a chashaku I carved from a 300-year-old creosote branch, kintsugi mizusashi, and my grandmother’s old cinnabar natsume, nearly 40 years after she passed.❤️🍵
Our first tea after weeks of traveling was part of a meeting to discuss the possibility of establishing an intersex support and advocacy group here in Tucson. The scroll speaks of unity: “One true heart like an iron stone,” and there were symbols of community throughout. #teaceremony #intersex
May 28, 2025 at 7:27 AM
Our first tea after weeks of traveling was part of a meeting to discuss the possibility of establishing an intersex support and advocacy group here in Tucson. The scroll speaks of unity: “One true heart like an iron stone,” and there were symbols of community throughout. #teaceremony #intersex
My beautiful niece, Rachel, asked if we could do tea during her latest visit. She is pretty much a human mermaid, lives on the beach, and is constantly compared to Ariel, so an oceanic theme was definitely called for. Such a delight! ❤️☀️🌊🐚🧜♀️
#chanoyu #japaneseteaceremony
#chanoyu #japaneseteaceremony
April 21, 2025 at 9:22 PM
My beautiful niece, Rachel, asked if we could do tea during her latest visit. She is pretty much a human mermaid, lives on the beach, and is constantly compared to Ariel, so an oceanic theme was definitely called for. Such a delight! ❤️☀️🌊🐚🧜♀️
#chanoyu #japaneseteaceremony
#chanoyu #japaneseteaceremony
BlueSky’s anti-Zuck “World without Ceasars” shirt instantly sells out. Welcome to the new zeitgeist. #aworldwithoutceasars
March 13, 2025 at 9:10 PM
BlueSky’s anti-Zuck “World without Ceasars” shirt instantly sells out. Welcome to the new zeitgeist. #aworldwithoutceasars
Spent the day working with Rose, a local craft mixologist friend, to perfect our upcoming Japanese-Sonoran cocktails class at Yume Gardens. This is going to be so much fun! If you’re in Tucson, come join us March 30th!
March 13, 2025 at 7:26 AM
Spent the day working with Rose, a local craft mixologist friend, to perfect our upcoming Japanese-Sonoran cocktails class at Yume Gardens. This is going to be so much fun! If you’re in Tucson, come join us March 30th!
Tea inspired by “The Brutalist.” Architectural matsukawabishi mizusashi by Kimon Soko, raku chawan, “Silence” scroll, flower container is a pipe fitting from Tucson’s old water main, chaire is Yosegi Zaiku by Yoshihiro Ishikawa, chashaku was “Vast Stillness,” carved by me, steel bridge futaoki.
March 8, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Tea inspired by “The Brutalist.” Architectural matsukawabishi mizusashi by Kimon Soko, raku chawan, “Silence” scroll, flower container is a pipe fitting from Tucson’s old water main, chaire is Yosegi Zaiku by Yoshihiro Ishikawa, chashaku was “Vast Stillness,” carved by me, steel bridge futaoki.
I hosted a tea ceremony to honor teachers, and then later that night we all went to Butoh at Yume Japanese Gardens. Such a blessing to have this in Tucson.
#chanoyu #teaceremony #butoh
#chanoyu #teaceremony #butoh
February 28, 2025 at 7:18 AM
I hosted a tea ceremony to honor teachers, and then later that night we all went to Butoh at Yume Japanese Gardens. Such a blessing to have this in Tucson.
#chanoyu #teaceremony #butoh
#chanoyu #teaceremony #butoh
Actual screen shot from my own phone on the official White House Twitter account. Here we are, folks. Trump has declared himself king.
February 19, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Actual screen shot from my own phone on the official White House Twitter account. Here we are, folks. Trump has declared himself king.
Our final Sundance film was Mr. Nobody Against Putin. Filmed secretly over 2 years, the filmmaker risked his life to get footage of how Putin turned Russia’s public schools into military training and recruitment centers. It is shocking, heartbreaking, inspiring, and it feels utterly prescient.
February 3, 2025 at 7:23 AM
Our final Sundance film was Mr. Nobody Against Putin. Filmed secretly over 2 years, the filmmaker risked his life to get footage of how Putin turned Russia’s public schools into military training and recruitment centers. It is shocking, heartbreaking, inspiring, and it feels utterly prescient.
This Mississippi bill puts a bounty on migrants and is being touted as an aid for deportation, but the bill actually calls for punishing undocumented immigrants as felons with LIFE SENTENCES and no chance for parole! How is this not front page news? billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/20...
January 31, 2025 at 7:09 PM
This Mississippi bill puts a bounty on migrants and is being touted as an aid for deportation, but the bill actually calls for punishing undocumented immigrants as felons with LIFE SENTENCES and no chance for parole! How is this not front page news? billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/20...
Tea for a mom and daughter who both celebrated their birthdays this week. They love the ocean so I chose everything based on that. The mom actually cried when I showed them the fluorescent glaze on the chawan by Kinoto Kuniko, as it reminded her of glowing coral. So, so special.
January 19, 2025 at 7:29 AM
Tea for a mom and daughter who both celebrated their birthdays this week. They love the ocean so I chose everything based on that. The mom actually cried when I showed them the fluorescent glaze on the chawan by Kinoto Kuniko, as it reminded her of glowing coral. So, so special.