Narrow Road to the Deep South

Black Zen

Narrow Road to the Deep South
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“from the hills and
molehills of Mississippi”
—Martin Luther King

Cotton-patch logic—
All that remains of Deep South
Imperial dreams

YOKNAPATHAWPA—
All of it devastated
The hills and molehills

Delta Bourbons gone—
From Memphis to Biloxi
Dixie Empire dead

Ruined Atlanta—
Miss Scarlet Nostalgia
Gone With the Wind dump
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Bashō struggled with—
Zen disciples and teachers
He blossomed Stonily

His Zen steadied him—
Fewer aspirations stood
In the poet’s way

Young Yoshitada—
Son of local samurai
Became his lover

He coveted high—
Official post as a
Homosexual
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Death of his lover—
A complicated love-life
Off to Kyoto

Became editor—
The Seashell Game (Kai Oi)
With 30 poets

Samurai dropout—
Haiku teacher and poet
Edo (Tokyo)

Stitching together—
His life as a thread of art
Way of Elegance
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He admired Zen mind—
Using Nothingness for his
Haiku wanderings

His students built him—
A shack by the Sumida
His Bashō-an hut

Disillusioned by—
Big City T’ang Dynasty
Decadence, he wrote...

He studied Taoist—
Chuang Tzu masterpieces
The Chinese poets
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The rainy season—
Monsoon scudding clouds shorten
The dark moody days

The lyricism—
Of both To Fu and Li Po
The Zen of Han Shan

I took mother’s hand—
It melted in my hot tears
Heavy autumn frost

Then I began my—
First Travelogue of Weather
Beaten Old Bones
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Black Zen was my goal—
Instant awareness of the
Vast Black Emptiness

Each line a Struggle—
Achieving fleeting moments
Night on Cold Mountain

To clothe language—
In a more simple syntax
But keeping the depth

Trance diaries—
Need to be improved for our
Black Zen Travelogues
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I needed a Style—
For Reinvigorating
The travelogue mind

My next journal was—
Sashimi Travelogue
A moon viewing trip

After flirting with—
Dense Chinese diction I turned
To Black Aesthetics

Ways of Elegance—
Elegant simplicity
Eidetic darkness
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Ordinariness—
Elegant simplicity
Thru simple wordplay

Abide by the Rules—
And then throw them all out
Achieving Freedom

Freedom expresses—
Itself by redefining
The form of haiku

The Black Zen Journey—
Is a seamless union
Spirit and Matter