Comments on: 2nd Sailing

By: Stanford M. Forrester

Stanford M. Forrester — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:27:15 +0000

On the Pacific side, the collections I return to over and over again are the following:
Volumes 1-4 of R.H. Blyth’s Haiku, plus his History of Haiku in two parts, and some other rare treasures of his work I managed to acquire. These are probably the most important books in the development of English language haiku and they highly influenced Jack Kerouac and Gary Snyder. I also love Santoka Taneda’s “Mountain Tasting” which is now back in print thanks to White Pine Press. Every time I read it, I find another jewel. Such richness for a mendicant Soto Zen monk. I also love Saito’s haiku in “The Kobe Hotel”. Saito was one of the “non-traditional” poets that Kyoshi’s side tossed in Jail during WWII. Burton Watson’s translations of Shiki, masterful, and Ueda’s translations of Issa and Buson, also masterful. So we are blessed now with some powerhouse translators. Unfortunately most of them are emeritus and are impermanent like all things.

On this side of the pacific, I return to Karma Tenzing Wangchuk’s “90 Frogs”– a modern classic. I also return to work by Raymond Roseleip, J.W. Hackett, Bob Boldman, Jerry Kilbride, and vincent tripi. There are others such as John Martone, George Dorsty, Larry Kimmel, Bruce Ross, they all have contributed in their own way. The are original voices, not followers/imitator’s, but bring something from the past haiku poets, but walk their own path. A true poet’s company is from the past and present.

I know I’m not including everyone, just too many to mention here. It is also so subjective, but the key is to respect each poets take on life and poetry.
May the haiku gods shine upon us! Stanford M. Forrester

By: Ron Moss

Ron Moss — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:24:55 +0000

Merrill Ann,

I also have that Japanese poetry collection, The Country of Eight Islands . John Stevens has two book translations out of Ryokan’s writings. I have the ‘One Robe, One Bowl’…wonderful poetry. Thy are both still availible.

best wishes, Ron

By: Roberta Beary

Roberta Beary — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:36:35 +0000

Paul Reps’ Zen Telegrams is described on its inside cover as “79 PICTURE-POEMS”. Here is one picture-poem to which I return again and again when the tumult of living “inside the beltway” proves too much:

drinking
a bowl of green tea
I stopped the war

My thanks to Stan Forrester for my copy of this wonderful little book.

By: Peter Yovu

Peter Yovu — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:19:38 +0000

My son, when he was 4 or 5, referred to milk as “ocean white”. When I was that age, many people ago, cream cheese, especially on rye, was oral heaven. Once in a while even now it has that fullness of flavor that recreates for me the golden merger of infant with mother, or childhood with early summer… Perhaps cream cheese was better in those days, but more likely, my taste buds have worn down somewhat, and the sensorium of my being has dulled.

But the soul, if you will, retains its keen receptors, something I am well aware of when reading certain poems, most often haiku. Maybe I come back to some of Lippy’s poems because they bring me, in full simplicity, to some essence of Vermont, particularly to late summer and fall feelings, so that I come to believe that his experience was both personal and essential, and meets me where mine is also essential. It may simply be that he appears to have a melancholy temperament, and is drawn, as I often am, to the seasons and times of day that reflect this.

But on another level, I am drawn to his work because he is capable of doing something which seldom realizes itself in my own work: he makes, or should I say, discovers, subtle connections between things, between senses, and locates them in a season in ways that utterly transcend technique or any imperative to include this or that in haiku.

summer dawn
coolness
of the egg’s taper

By: Merrill Ann Gonzales

Merrill Ann Gonzales — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 01:45:16 +0000

Ron, I love Ryokan too. I only have a few of the poems in the anthology
From The Country of Eight Islands: An Anthology of Japanese Poetry. In that one volume is a treasure trove of fine Japanese poets.