07 Beach Haiku
Umbrella raised,
dogs and wife settled,
sea scrubbing the shore.
… i was about to title this Sylvia Plath, or the Journals of Sylvia Plath… MP’s thoughts here revolve around Sylvia Plath’s journals even as they evoke thoughts and feelings of sadness and loneliness that she herself feels… MP is talking as much about her own experience as she is decoding Sylvia Plath’s…
… i learn that she considers her upbringing less than optimal and that she has struggled in relationships with “people whose claws fit (her) wounds and deepen them,” an experience i certainly had with my first marriage…
… it is strange, though, to talk about the loneliness of love… i don’t really understand this… i suppose that a relationship can leave one unfulfilled (and therefore lonely?)… i suspect that one is lonely on their own when one isn’t good at being with themselves… would this have been Sylvia Plath’s problem?… is this Maria Popova’s problem?…
… i have spent very little of my life truly alone… there has almost always been a love interest and very brief times of solitude between those interests… even so, i have always required large amounts of solitude within my relationships… i wake up early in the morning just to have several hours of that solitude before H wakes up and the household begins to churn…
… i am so good at being alone that i don’t struggle with loneliness much at all… i like who and what i am in solitude… this was my pandemic super power… i did not have to change much about my routines during the height of it… often, it is enough to satisfy my need for human contact to be in a cafe full of strangers, or, during the pandemic, meet someone i know on the street and chat for a few minutes…
03 Voting Rights
… an epic battle is playing out, the likes of which we have not seen since the Civil War… at least, it seems that way to me… there are gaps in my knowledge of history…
… the battle is about who gets to vote and the shape of government in the US will be strongly impacted depending on which side we land on… enfranchising a limited, mostly white, segment of the population or as much of the population as possible… that is, how much of a democracy will our democracy be?…
… at present, the limit the franchise contingent has the upper hand… the coming month or two are critical…
… a vote was held in the Senate this week on whether to startdebate on S1 (For The People Act)… Republicans successfully filibustered…
… congress will recess and reconvene in the middle of July… all eyes will be on whether the Democrats can modify the filibuster rule to allow voting rights legislation to be passed…
02 Buson
… i keep searching for a name for this daily 02 slot post, which i like to be based on readings that are inspirational or in some way dealing with bigger questions… i intend the readings to be a moment of centering and contemplation, a meditation perhaps…
… this morning i continue with the haiku of Buson as translated by Robert Haas…
… as i open my book, i turn to a reproduction of a painting by Buson… Two Crows in Winter (the left panel)…
… i am reminded of Masahisa Fukase’s photo book, Ravens… an acknowledged masterpiece… i have a copy and look forward to looking at it when i get home…
… a poem about a quilt, stained with urine, drying on a line in Suma Village… Buson has no qualms about mentioning urine or shit, in his poems… we shit, we pee, and not always with decorum… an example of the down to earth nature of his poems…
01 First Thoughts
… we are down to our last few days on the island… i am starting to anticipate being home, imagine it… on some trips i am very anxious to get home… this one a little less so… we have had a good time and done most of the things we wanted to do… my only regret is that i didn’t read more, but ok, vacations are for letting go of should and giving full reign to the want of the moment…
… my picture making has been a little lackluster lately, but i am not worrying about it… i continue to explore the capabilities of the iPhone and will certainly go home with a good set of pictures overall… also, i have given color a fuller nod while here… don’t know if it will last, i do love b&w, but i am getting them to look better… editing color pictures has not been as successful as b&w for me… hard to get what i think of as a natural look…
… thinking about the family situation… trying to find my footing in it… trying to achieve perspective and grace towards myself and family members… it’s going to be an emotional year…
… a big thump of the floor as our very large cat Rubie jumps down from the window sill…
03 Race Week!
… we went to Dory’s Cove to watch the boats for a while… couldn’t make out exactly what was going on, but it was a lovely ballet… boats would gather together in a cluster then a group would break off and dash down or up the coast… a bit like a murmuration, only of boats and in two dimensional space… H said it reminded her of paintings done during the Renaissance… i think in particular of the Dutch painters…
… i texted my friend on the racing boat i crewed on to see how they did… they texted back that it was a glorious day of sailing and they didn’t come in last… they said they would be in touch which suggests i should wait for further communication to be initiated by them… i wonder if i will hear from them…
02 Buson
… crows end their flight, one by one, as they return to roost at the end of the day…
… even holy people crap in the fields…
… a tree, the blow of an ax, the scent of pine, all this in the woods, in the winter…
… Buson poems seem only to be about the here and now recorded as succinctly as possible…
… i can’t decide if i like Buson… i miss the layered interpretations of Basho’s poems, the nod to spiritual dimensions… in Buson, the spiritual is entirely contained within the moment… is not a separate thing… could that be the message?… we find meaning if we engage with the moments, pay attention, notice them… commit them to a poem so we can remember them…
01 First Thoughts
… feeling a little groggy this morning…
… Chas got me up in the middle of the night to go out, even though i walked him just before going to bed… dogs, great companions, sometimes sleep’s enemy…
… we have five more days on Block Island and then return home… this is the longest vacation we have ever had… it’s been nice… a good mixture of family, fun and relaxation…
04 For The People
… today the Senate will vote on whether to begin debate on the For The People Act or S1… it is widely expected that Republicans will prevent that from happening… what happens next will be interesting… will Manchin and Sinema begin reconsidering their position on the filibuster as at least Manchin has indicated he might?… all eyes on Washington this week…
02 Buson
… Buson continues to be a very down to earth poet… one about a snail with unequal horn length, wondering what is on its mind… another about a frog swimming awkwardly which resonates with a song i learned in grade school, (middle school?)… i google it, there is a wikipedia entry on it which gives me the complete lyrics…
_ What a queer bird, the frog are_
When he sit he stand (almost)
When he walk he fly (almost)
When he talk he cry (almost)
He ain’t got no sense, hardly
He ain’t got no tail, neither, hardly
He sit on what he ain’t got hardly
… i learn the song was first published in 1922 and attributed to “a young Norwegian living in Chicago at the time…
… a fun song… stuck in my mind (mostly) all these years… Buson brought it back to me…
… thinking about Buson and Basho, it seems to me that Basho was often looking for the transcendent metaphor, the one about plowing a field and a stranger asking for directions then disappearing being a prime example… an immediate literal interpretation, a second metaphorical one… Buson seems to be more concerned with moments in and of them selves and for themselves… in a way, this is transcendent too, because being purely in the present moment is that… right here, right now, that is what matters… very Buddhist…
01 First Thoughts
… tired last night, in bed by 9:30… we never got to race yesterday, the fog refused to lift… felt a mixture of disappointment and relief… it was cool seeing all the boats and doing a little bit of sailing which is what we did after the race was cancelled… nice people too… i learned that i really liked being on the boat and sailing, as opposed to motoring… i learned that bananas are never to be brought on board the boat because they bring bad luck with them… yes, among recreational boaters, it’s a thing… how did i learn this?… one of the crew members brought bananas on board which were discovered by another member and immediately removed… they
03 Sleeping Dogs not Lying
… the dogs wake up… i get them and take them out… round and round the house we go… Chas does his business quickly… Fiona refuses to do anything… round and round, nothing… she’s always been this way… needs a long walk to get the pipes flowing… i don’t have time this morning… we come back in… it isn’t long before there is cleanup to do…
02 Haiku of Buson
… the poem that grabs my attention…
Fallen petals of red plum—
they seem to be burning
on the clods of horse shit.1
… it makes me laugh, the contradiction, something so ethereal in nature juxtaposed with something natural that is not…
… another one catches my attention… it is about tilling a field and a man who asks the way then disappears… my first understanding is literal… that a man has asked directions and once received, has proceeded on his way and moved out of sight… with a second reading the metaphorical nature of the poem comes through to me… the man asking the way is the same man doing the tilling and the way is spiritual practice… physical labor grounds one in the right hear, right now… the way… is that how crewing on the boat today will be?… my doubts and questions will recede into the necessity of the moment?…
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Buson. The Essential Haiku: versions of Basho, Buson & Issa. Translation, Robert Hass. The Echo Press, 1994. ↩︎
01 First Thoughts
… my thoughts this AM, as they have been for most of the last 24 hrs since i was asked to crew on a racing boat, are about the adventure i am about to have… i am nervous that in some way i won’t be up to the task… that i will be overmatched by the situation… not terror, just nervous… which is probably a good thing, stage fright keeps one on their toes, concentrated… P chimed in on my FB post and said they had crewed on America Cup type boats twice and both times the bulk of the crew had no experience… you do what the captain tells you and everything is ok… the winds are expected to be brisk today, teens to low twenties with gusts up to thirty mph, though that is later in the afternoon, we may be done by then… it is foggy this morning… i am wondering how persistent that will be and how it might affect the start of the race… could also be foggy at the house but not at the race…
05 Adventure?
… been asked to crew on a racing sail boat… they mostly need a body on the boat… i said yes… foolish?… i expect one of the captain’s jobs is safety of the crew… as long as i keep my head down and follow orders, i should be ok?…
04 Basho to Buson
… i have finished reading the poetry and prose of Basho in the present volume… it concluded with The Saga Diary… an account of his time at the home of a friend… in it, i think i perceive that Basho might have been gay… this reminds me of my own mentor, M, who died long ago during the AIDS epidemic…
… yesterday, i thought of the work i did with him… M was a true master… he thought highly of me… i have not lived up to the expectations i have of myself because of this… still, i keep trying…
… i read the introduction to Buson, who seems to have been a more down-to-earth artist… he enjoyed earthly things, drinking with friends, Geisha girls…
… he loved the poetry of Basho…
… in this introduction to Buson, i learn that the struggles i have about whether to feed the art market (make some money from my work) or not are not new (did i really think they were?)… it seems that as long as there has been art and a market for it, this has been the struggle… i am fortunate to not require an income from the art i make… though the occasional sale is welcome…
… the sun is well up… the birds continue to twitter outside… the dogs sleep in the living room… a cool breeze brushes over my back… in the distance the waves break on the shore… i feel good in this moment…
03 How Slow is the Internet Here?
… so slow, that Ulysses can’t finish autosaving a document before it needs to start again, leading to multiple iterations of the same document… at least that is what i think the multiple iterations are all about…
… they are installing new broad band on the island… can’t be done with that soon enough…
02 Heather Cox Richardson
… HCR’s post this morning is mostly about voting rights and the strident efforts of conservatives to restrict them across the country at the state level…
… this week the Senate will vote on the For The People Act which enforces from the federal level increased access to voting and ends partisan gerrymandering…
… Democratic Senator Joe Manchin has propose compromises, republicans are trying to hold the line… if they do, back over to Manchin and the filibuster question…
… a significant week for the course of democracy in this country…
01 First Thoughts
… struggling a bit to wake up… had some alcohol just before going to bed, thus the struggle…
… is today father’s day?… toying with not making the family zoom meeting… thinking that probably isn’t a good idea…
… today is summer solstice, the longest daylight of the year… wondering what to do to mark it, celebrate it… then the long slide into shorter days…
… two days ago, a horrific moped accident that apparently involved someone loosing part of their leg… i was in the hardware store when a local who had witnessed the aftermath reported it to the clerk in the store… they said they wished they could unsee it… i have been thinking about it since… i wish i could un-hear it…
… Chas starting to moan upstairs, i will have to go get him and Fiona… don’t like it when they don’t get up with me… interrupts the flow of the morning…
… it’s race week on BI… an acquaintance is out here crewing on one of the boats… his wife lets me know this through FB messenger… last night, i found the boat… she sent me his number… i will text him today…
… O and S have been visiting since Friday… we all went out to diner last night at the Oar, boater central… then we walked the docks, looking at the boats… then over to Champlain’s where we also looked at the boats… quieter scene over there… still some partying going on… attractive middle aged woman floating around the docks in a long, flowing, black linen dress… it’s interesting when one dresses to stand out and seems so at ease doing so…
04 Kiss the Police?
Vinca Peterson: Raves and Riots
… this photograph is striking… it seems that young women confronting the uniformed presence of the state with love is an image to be found happening again and again… it reminds me of this photograph from the Vietnam War era…
Marc Ribaud, Jan Rose Kasmir confronting the military at the Pentagon.
… i wonder if the striking contradiction of the feminine confronting the masculine in this way can happen with the same impact now that women increasingly join the ranks of the police and military?…
03 Love is Love
… Loving: A Photographic History of Men In Love, 1850-1950…
… one remarkable thing about this collection is the courage of the men being photographed… the world was far less enlightened than it is now, though there is still a long way to go… it reminds me of one of Simone de Beauvoir’s achievements in The Second Sex, which was to establish that gender and sex are not the same thing, the former being a social construct, the latter being a condition of the body… gender is fluid, sex, less so…