Several times a week, I pass a public stairwell with a big flower arrangement on the landing. This week the arrangement consists mostly of white, pink-tipped roses and pinkish gladioli. The arranger obviously does not share the aesthetic that tells us flower arrangements should be made with materials in season, and so every time I [...]
Archive for October, 2009
CHRYSANTHEMUMS AND PERSIMMONS
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged autumn, Bashô, chrysanthemums, haikai, haiku, hokku, persimmons, seasons, transience, writing, zen on October 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
FALLING LEAVES
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged autumn, Buson, falling leaves, Gyôdai, haikai, haiku, hokku, nature, poetry, Ryōkan, Ryūshi, Taigi, transience, writing, zen on October 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In old hokku, falling and fallen leaves are generally a winter subject. But where I live, as well as in many other parts of North America, they are generally more appropriate to deep autumn.
Ryōkan wrote:
The wind Brings enough for a fire – Fallen leaves.
Have you noticed that old hokku often put the main subject [...]
LEARNING FROM SCARECROWS
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged autumn, Chasei, haikai, haiku, hokku, nature, Nyōfu, poetry, scarecrows, seasons, Shôhaku, sparrows, writing, zen on October 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
What is most important in hokku is understanding its aesthetics, which are generally quite different from those of English-language poetry. If one understands the aesthetics and knows the basics of form and punctuation in English, a really perceptive reader could actually do self-teaching merely from studying old hokku.
Unfortunately, when hokku first came West, English-speakers (and [...]
WINDBLOWN BANANAS
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged autumn, Bashô, haikai, hokku, nature, poetry, rain, wind, writing, zen on October 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
One big difference between hokku and modern haiku is that in hokku, we learn the aesthetics and principles and techniques of the verse form before exploring on our own to see what best fits our individual natures. In haiku, on the other hand, people begin with a minimum of instruction and quickly make their own [...]
¿HOKKU EN ESPAÑOL?
Posted in Uncategorized on October 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Parece que algunos habladores de Español leen mi sitio. ¡Bienvenidos!
Si Uds. tienen preguntas o comentarios, hagan «clic» en “Leave a Comment” al fin del artículo, y así pueden mandarme un mensaje.
No puedo prometir que voy a responder en puro Español, pero voy a tratar de responder, y espero que Uds. pueden entenderme.
David
WHY I LINK HOKKU AND MEDITATIVE PRACTICE
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Bashô, haikai, hokku, poetry, spirituality, writing, zen on October 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Readers of the previous posting about Zen and hokku, on reading my emphasis on some kind of meditative spiritual practice, may justifiably think, “Well, hokku may have an historical connection with Zen aesthetics, but why does this fellow recommend some kind of spiritual practice for those who want to write hokku when no one else [...]
ZEN AND HOKKU
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Buddhism, haikai, hokku, nature, poetry, poverty, simplicity, Transcendentalism, transience, writing, zen on October 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Hokku is often described as “Zen” verse. Actually it is the most “Zen” of all verse forms, but what does that mean?
“Zen” has several meanings. Originally it was just the Japanese pronunciation of a word borrowed from China — and ultimately from India. That word is jhāna, meaning “meditative absorption” in the Pali language of [...]
THE RAW MATERIAL OF HOKKU
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged George Willard Schultz, haikai, hokku, nature, poetry, seasons, winter, wolves, writing, zen on October 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Hokku is verse composed from the raw material of Nature and the seasons. It may begin with and experience or a memory, but ultimately it all comes from Nature and time. So writing a hokku is simply a matter of careful selection.
In 1877 a young man named George Willard Schultz felt himself drawn from Missouri [...]
WHAT IS IN A NAME?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Bashô, haikai, hokku, nature, poetry, writing, zen on October 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Continuing the thought of the previous posting, what does it matter whether we call the verse we write hokku, or haiku, or even something else, if it is good, passionate verse?
It matters very much indeed. Aside from the simple matter of historical accuracy — which requires use of the term hokku — there is the [...]
HOKKU IS NOT HAIKU, AND VICE-VERSA
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Bashô, haiku, hokku, nature, Onitsura, poetry, writing, zen on October 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Many are still confused by careless and indiscriminate use and mixing of the terms hokku and haiku in print and on the Internet. Are they the same? Are they different? It is important to know, because the survival of hokku depends on understanding just what it is, so that we do not confuse it with [...]
THE NATURAL APPROACH TO SEASONAL SUBJECTS
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged autumn, harmony, Henry David Thoreau, hokku, nature, poetry, seasons, selflessness, spring, summer, writing, zen on October 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In previous postings I have talked about how hokku intimately relates to Nature and the seasons, and I have said that the key to hokku is understanding that it expresses the seasons in its subject matter. Merely setting a hokku in a given season is not enough; the hokku must express that season in one [...]
WRITING BY SEASON
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged autumn, harmony, hokku lessons, nature, poetry, season words, seasons, spring, summer, writing, zen on October 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In hokku old and new, there are two ways of relating to the seasons. One is fixed and somewhat artificial (old hokku), the other natural (new hokku).
The “fixed” way is the compiling of season words and season dictionaries, and spending years learning them and how to apply them. But even then, the result will generally [...]
ROBERT HARRY HOVER
Posted in Uncategorized on October 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday I learned, quite by chance, that a person very significant for me died in December of the last year. That person was Robert Harry Hover — “Mr. Hover” — who was my direct teacher in a meditation course that changed my way of viewing the world.
Robert Hover was an American aerospace engineer who went [...]
