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.
Basho, more than any poet in World Literature, expresses the power of the female to give life as in this renku of 1683 where his second stanza fulfills the first stanza by another poet:
Seeds start to sprout
for our treasured grass
Giving birth to love in the world, she adorns herself
Grains of rice are planted in nursery beds to sprout, looking like ordinary grass, showing no sign that four months later they will yield the staple food of Asia. From this vision of Mother Earth giving birth to rice, Basho expands to the universal female producing “love in the world” while She makes herself beautiful.
The Complete Basho Renku Interpretive Anthology says Basho “speaks of the beautiful form of the mother giving birth to a child who receives love within the world.”
Basho takes the thoughts of the first poet, going from woman bearing a human child to Mother Earth giving birth to countless billions of plants: the living woman merges with female Earth. He observes what women do: adorn themselves. Most men merely want to look respectable, while women spend hours everyday making themselves beautiful with clothing, jewelry, hair, makeup, and more – just as the Earth adorns herself with green leaves and flowers.
Mary Wollstonecraft, in Vindication of the Right of Women, criticizes women for making herself beautiful while encased in patriarchy, in her words: "adorning (her) prison." She condemns patriarchy for "flattering (women's) fascinating graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone." Basho escapes from Wollstonecraft's criticism because he repeatedly and consistantly focuses on a woman standing alone, adorning herself while actively "giving birth to love in the world."
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.
