Issa's Untidy Hut

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Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 129 songs

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Gimme Some Truth: Issa's Sunday Service, #129

It may seem that this selection for the Sunday Service is more of a reflection of the current state of things than a song with a literary allusion and all I can say is nobody is gonna "Mother Hubbard, soft soap" me, this late February Sunday morning.

Beatles songs, Van Morrison songs and any number of other well-known artists have been conspicuously absent from early on at the Sunday Service because of copyright issues. I've refrained from the youtube route but have decided to deviate in this instance because I just needed to hear this one.

To balance out the karma, from the other end of things (with a tip of the hat to Mr. Clark from Beyond the Pale) here's a little something to warm the heart (Doc Cheatham - Someday You'll Be Sorry):

And this one's for John, again in the interest of balance - as angry as he could be, compassion, too, was a strong suit:

And one for John's Mom, done by son Sean, which recalls in the lyrics, a little something by Issa (haiku at bottom of linked post):

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speaking truth
the rainy season's crack
of thunder

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

Send a single haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 129 songs

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Certitude of Laundromats: Albert Huffstickler (12/17/1927 - 2/25/2002)

Today is the 10th anniversary of Albert Huffstickler's death and I still think about him all the time. Here is a video of a musician, Tola Marton, adapting one of Huff's great poems to song, posted by Felicia Mitchell on the Huff Facebook page.

The poem below, from the chapbook, pictured above:

click to enlarge

Also posted on that page today is a poem called "Origins", with Huff reading. Another beauty.

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mountain temple--
the butterfly sips
Buddha's tea water

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,

Don

Send a single haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 128 songs

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Jeff Hanson & Ronald Baatz: Wednesday Haiku, Week 56

Tsuchiyama by Hiroshige

autumn rain… some things wash away

Jeff Hanson

Photo by Ponx

Wet yard
quiet as
drizzle

Ronald Baatz

half of it
is flitting snowflakes...
spring rain

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,

Don

Send a single haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 128 songs

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Reactions to Watts on Writing: a Reader Generated Post

I'd like to begin this post with a big thanks to all who regularly read and to those who contribute via the comments and emails. I think what follows will speak to how fine those contributions are.

In a recent post, I quoted Alan Watts on advice to writers, with a tip o' the hat to Neil Gaiman. Reader reaction to the post was every bit as interesting as the quote itself, setting off a cascade of reaction that expanded and clarified some thought.

I also received a question from San Francisco via Scotland (thanks, Rita!) as to whether Watts really said this at all. As I've not been able to independently verify, I've sent a query off to Mr. Gaiman. We'll see.

If anyone else can confirm or refute, that would be just great.

Always so much harder to prove something didn't happen than it did, said the librarian to the world.

Ed pointed to Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones as another essential source of writing wisdom/inspiration. Here is a set of quotes from Goldberg on GoodReads that speak to the point.

Aditya conjures this great Charles Bukowski quote:

Bukowski explained the phrase in a 1963 letter to John William Corrington: "Somebody at one of these places [...] asked me: 'What do you do? How do you write, create?' You don't, I told them. You don't try. That's very important: 'not' to try, either for Cadillacs, creation or immortality. You wait, and if nothing happens, you wait some more. It's like a bug high on the wall. You wait for it to come to you. When it gets close enough you reach out, slap and kill it. Or if you like its looks you make a pet out of it."

Donna sent along this wonder full lecture of Watts on Haiku:

And Pat remembers a great poem by Gary Snyder:

How Poetry Comes to Me
It comes blundering over the
Boulders at night, it stays
Frightened outside the
Range of my campfire
I go to meet it at the
Edge of the light

Lyle has both a favorite Watts quote and a great Bukowski ancedote, the latter in reaction to Aditya's comment:

One of my favorite Alan Watts quotes, a very brief one, is a quick moment from an interview with Robert Wilson, given at the front of an edition of Zen and the Beat Way. The snippet of dialogue goes as follows:

Robert Wilson: What is Zen?

Alan Watts: [Soft chuckling.]

Robert Wilson: Would you care to enlarge on that?

Alan Watts: [Loud laughing.]

And the Buk:

The item in one of the other comments here about Charles Bukowski ("Don't try") brought to mind another Bukowski moment, of sorts -- in The Poet Exposed (a book of photographs of poets by Chris Felver, who has photographed quite a few), the page for Charles Bukowski has no photo of Bukowski, only a photo reproduction of a short handwritten note that reads "No visitors," with Bukowski's signature at the bottom.

Finally, Merrill's deep reaction to Watts' "bird flying over us" provoked this reaction from me:

Full moon shadow the passing wing

-------------------------

vain mankind--
idling away this night
of winter moon

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,

Don

Send a single haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 128 songs

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Margaret Chula and John Martone: Wednesday Haiku Week 55

wind blows
the last brown leaves
clenched fingers
Margaret Chula
(from Grinding my ink, 1993)

geese above
his junkyard
it’s time

John Martone

with Buddha's peace
gazing at red leaves...
Mr. and Mrs. Deer
Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

----------------------------

Lots of folks have been asking about the Waffle Shop reading/interview webcast. The good news is that it has been archived and can be seen here:

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/20405757

best,

Don

Send a single haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 128 songs

Friday, February 10, 2012

John Bennett: Golden Buddha in a Blade of Grass

Golden Buddha in
a Blade of Grass

John Bennett

I'm wading through Stranger Music, Leonard Cohen's collected poems, written before his diamond-clean Book of Longing. "The Death of a Lady's Man" section is particularly trying. So much bitterness anchored in shattered illusions of love.

And then, out of nowhere and way out of context, Cohen's Zen master pops up in two poems and dispels the darkness.

It has something to do with absolute acceptance. It has something to do not only with not casting judgment but not suppressing the urge to cast judgment: with not having the urge to cast judgment.

"Kone," says Roshi, deep into a bottle of Courvoisier, "you should write cricket poem."

It's the summer of 1977, and they're sitting in the dark in a cabin on Mt. Baldy with the door open to let the breeze in, listening to the crickets.

"I've already written a cricket poem," says Leonard. "Two years ago. Right here in this cabin."

They sit in the darkness a while longer, and then Roshi says, "Kone, what is the source of this world?"

When Leonard can provide no answer, Roshi says, "Ah...difficult..." And then, in a soft voice: "Yah, Kone...you should write more sad."

Then he rings a little bell by his side, and Leonard bows and leaves.

Photo by Diciu

Summer-Haiku

Silence
and a deeper silence
when the crickets
hesitate
Leonard Cohen

Photo by S. Sparrow

about as good
as the morning-glories...
temple bell

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,

Don

Send a single haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 128 songs

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Johnny Baranski and Michael L. Newell: Wednesday Haiku, #55

Photo by anna.dickie

left to my own devices
i have much in common
with the crow

johnny baranski

Couple Under Umbrella (Crow & Heron) by Suzuki Harunobu

Most eloquent
when simplest
the grammar of touch.

Michael L. Newell

Detail from Sparrow and Scissors by Hokusai

herons, crows, sparrows
all enjoying
the water's warmth
Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,

Don

Send a single haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 128 songs

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Advice for Aspiring Writers: Neil Gaiman Quoting Alan Watts

Neil Gaiman recently posted on his Tumblr account a wonderful quote from Alan Watts concerning advice for aspiring writers. I thought, since Watts (as well as Gaiman) is a long time favorite in these parts that it was well worth passing along:

Advice? I don’t have advice. Stop aspiring and start writing. If you’re writing, you’re a writer. Write like you’re a goddamn death row inmate and the governor is out of the country and there’s no chance for a pardon. Write like you’re clinging to the edge of a cliff, white knuckles, on your last breath, and you’ve got just one last thing to say, like you’re a bird flying over us and you can see everything, and please, for God’s sake, tell us something that will save us from ourselves. Take a deep breath and tell us your deepest, darkest secret, so we can wipe our brow and know that we’re not alone. Write like you have a message from the king. Or don’t. Who knows, maybe you’re one of the lucky ones who doesn’t have to.

— Alan Watts

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the baby swallow's
flying lesson...
off the horse's rump
Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,

Don

Send a single haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 128 songs