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.
The 17th century Japanese poet Basho was a master of renku, poetry composed by a group of poets, each writing a stanza linked to the stanza by another; he told his follower Doho:
Make renku ride the Energy
Basho speaks of ki, the Energy of Oriental medicine and martial arts, the prana of Yoga, the "Force" of Star Wars. He says that renku should “ride” this energy: each poet picks up the Energy of the previous stanza, and rides it to a new place, as one rides a horse to greater speed and power. To ride the Energy is to go with the flow, to become the flow. Those who ride horses, play a musical instrument, surf the waves, fly a kite, or practice yoga or a martial art may best understand Basho’s meaning.
To see how to rode the Energy in poetry, consider this renku stanza-pair written in 1665; a poet named Sengin wrote the first stanza and Basho the second:
Hand of the dancer
quietly descending
More than appears small child is obedient to the Energy
Sengin offers an elegant image of Japanese classical dance (although it could easily apply to Yoga or
Tai Chi): the silent motion of the hand expresses more, much more, than simply going from up to down;
it expresses the dancer’s awareness of the Energy or life force. Basho "rode the energy" of that image into the world of children: just as the dancer (or yoga student) moves with the Energy, the small child, who may not follow adult commands, is obedient to that Universal Energy.
Basho, 350 years ago, recognized that although adults consider children unfamiliar with Universal Energy,
actually that Energy flows more clearly in children. He told his follower Kyorai:
Only this: apply your heart to what children do
Not what children say or how they appear, but "what children do" -- the activity and movement of children following the Energy of the Universe.
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.
