Graphic by The Lawrenceville School
I bought a book of poetry for a young friend who is a budding poet just starting to make clever verses that rhyme. Poetry Is Not a Luxury has enough short poems to pique his interest in works that don't necessarily rhyme but are excellent views into the poets' minds.
Along the way, I decided to buy myself a book of poems as well.
On Love and Barley -Haiku of Basho, Jan. 7, 1986, Penguin Classics. 93 pages with 253 haiku poems.
Description: Basho, one of the greatest of Japanese poets and the master of haiku, was also a Buddhist monk and a life-long traveller. His poems combine 'karumi', or lightness of touch, with the Zen ideal of oneness with creation.
Each poem evokes the natural world - the cherry blossom, the leaping frog, the summer moon or the winter snow - suggesting the smallness of human life in comparison to the vastness and drama of nature.
Basho himself enjoyed solitude and a life free from possessions. His haiku are the work of an observant eye and a meditative mind.
Excerpts from the book:
8
Spring night,
cherry-
blossom dawn.
12
Spring rain -
under trees
a crystal stream
I will read Basho's haiku, 253 of them in this collection, whenever I'm in the mood for short, poetic observations of nature.
Are you planning to read any poetry this month?
I'm not (generally) a poetry reader but strangely I do have TWO (short) books of poetry coming up 'soon' - but I probably won't be reviewing them until May.
ReplyDeleteI've actually read some of Basho's haiku...and they are lovely! :D
ReplyDeleteThanks for an introduction to Basho. Haiku has always appealed to me.
ReplyDeleteMary @Bookfan