The only substantial
collection in English
of Basho's renku, tanka,
letters and spoken word
along with his haiku, travel
journals, and essays.
The only poet in old-time
literature who paid attention with praise
to ordinary women, children, and teenagers
in hundreds of poems
Hundreds upon hundreds of Basho works
(mostly renku)about women, children,
teenagers, friendship, compassion, love.
These are resources we can use to better
understand ourselves and humanity.
Interesting and heartfelt
(not scholarly and boring)
for anyone concerned with
humanity.
“An astonishing range of
social subject matter and
compassionate intuition”
"The primordial power
of the feminine emanating
from Basho's poetry"
Hopeful, life-affirming
messages from one of
the greatest minds ever.
Through his letters,
we travel through his mind
and discover Basho's
gentleness and humanity.
I plead for your help in
finding a person or group
to take over my 3000 pages of Basho material,
to edit and improve the material, to receive 100%
of royalties, to spread Basho’s wisdom worldwide
and preserve for future generations.
Quotations from Basho Prose
The days and months are
guests passing through eternity.
The years that go by
also are travelers.
The mountains in silence
nurture the spirit;
the water with movement
calms the emotions.
All the more joyful,
all the more caring
Seek not the traces
of the ancients;
seek rather the
places they sought.
Before cotton entered Japan in the 16th century, and then where cotton was unavailable, villagers (i.e. women) made their family’s clothing from fibers in hemp stalks, wisteria or arrowroot vines, or under the bark of paper mulberry. Wives, daughters and older women of the household gathered the fibers, washed them in the river, spun them by hand into thread which they wove into cloth on simple looms. Such fabric had a rough texture, and when washed, became all the more coarse. Before the clothing – especially underwear – dried, the damp fabric had to be pounded with a mallet to soften it and remove wrinkles.
So often the moon appears in Japanese poetry, but the moon is, as Juliet puts it, “inconstant.” She begs Romeo,
Oh swear not by the moon, ‘th inconstant moon That monthly changes in her circled orb Lest that thy love prove likewise variable
Basho also wants something more stable in the night sky for these sounds from a woman on Earth. What could be more stable than the Big Dipper, always and forever pointing to the North Star, a fitting symbol for the constancy of women? To produce a sound so clear it reaches the Seven Stars light years away, the heart of the woman doing her work, hour after hour, year after year, must be exceedingly clear.
“Pounding cloth” can be more than merely what our foremothers did generations ago: it can be a symbol for ALL the labor women do to maintain fabric and clothing in wearable condition. In TONE SO CLEAR, Basho offers women at work on cloth an avenue to a greater Power in the sky, a passageway through the heaviness to the divine.
It may help to remember that the Big Dipper is the ‘Drinking Gourd’ Black escaping slaves followed to freedom in Canada; to keep on their way North, they chanted over and over again, “Follow the Drinking Gourd” – the very best advice they could give themselves. When my daugters were young, my favorite book to read with them was Follow the Drinking Gourd by Jeanette Winter which tells, in clear simple words and evocative drawings, the story of five runaway slaves who followed the Big Dipper to freedom in Canada; the full lyrics and musical score are included. I hope that by blending this power from African-American heritage with Basho’s haiku TONE SO CLEAR, both women and African-Americans can look up into the night sky to find inspiration and empowerment.
All the stars, including the Big Dipper, rotate counter-clockwise around the North Star throughout the evening and throughout the year, with the two stars at the end of the bowl always facing the North Star.
On winter evenings, the Dipper is to the right of the North Star, with the handle downward.
On spring evenngs, the Dipper is horizontal and above the North Star.
On summer evenings, it is to the left, with the handle upwards.
On autumn evenings, it is horizontal and below the North Star. Because it is so low in autumn,
buildings, trees, and mountains may block it, and light on earth may reduce its clarity.
I plead for your help in finding a person or group to take over my 3000 pages of Basho material, to edit and improve the presentation, to receive all royalties from sales, to spread Basho’s wisdom worldwide and preserve for future generations.
The only substantial
collection in English
of Basho's renku, tanka,
letters and spoken word
along with his haiku, travel
journals, and essays.
The only poet in old-time
literature who paid attention with praise
to ordinary women, children, and teenagers
in hundreds of poems
Hundreds upon hundreds of Basho works
(mostly renku)about women, children,
teenagers, friendship, compassion, love.
These are resources we can use to better
understand ourselves and humanity.
Interesting and heartfelt
(not scholarly and boring)
for anyone concerned with
humanity.
“An astonishing range of
social subject matter and
compassionate intuition”
"The primordial power
of the feminine emanating
from Basho's poetry"
Hopeful, life-affirming
messages from one of
the greatest minds ever.
Through his letters,
we travel through his mind
and discover Basho's
gentleness and humanity.
I plead for your help in
finding a person or group
to take over my 3000 pages of Basho material,
to edit and improve the material, to receive 100%
of royalties, to spread Basho’s wisdom worldwide
and preserve for future generations.
Quotations from Basho Prose
The days and months are
guests passing through eternity.
The years that go by
also are travelers.
The mountains in silence
nurture the spirit;
the water with movement
calms the emotions.
All the more joyful,
all the more caring
Seek not the traces
of the ancients;
seek rather the
places they sought.
