Poetry Reading: Winter Vibrations
The Verses of a Few of the Old Wayfarers Reflecting Upon Cold Nights
Greetings Good Travelers and Wayfarers,
Frank Inzan Owen here, coming to you from the Hidden Mountain Studio in the Appalachian Piedmont (the “Foot of the Mountains” region of North-Central Georgia), ancestral lands of the Ani Yun Wiya, the Principal People of the Cherokee Nation.
It’s the night before the Winter Solstice - the First Day of Winter. So, all of that said, these damp-cold temperatures have me warming up my saké pot, pondering old Wayfarers of the past, the harsh winters they endured, and the poems of winter that flowed from their brushes while wrapped in their winter robes.
In this installment of The Poet’s Dreamingbody, brew yourself a cup of hot tea, saké, or cocoa, curl up under the blanket, and let’s journey through some of the free verse and haiku poems of the old hermits, travelers, and “crazy clouds” of yesteryear.
SOURCES OF POEMS:
Mountain Home: The Wilderness Poetry of Ancient China, translated by David Hinton
Gazing At The Moon: Buddhist Poems of Solitude / Saigyo, translated by Meredith McKinney
Rengetsu: Life and Poetry of Lotus Moon, translated by John Stevens
Between the Floating Mist: Poems of Ryokan, translated by Dennis Maloney & Hide Oshiro
The Four Seasons: Japanese Haiku, Second Series, Peter Pauper Press, 1958
Wild Ways: Zen Poems of Ikkyu, translated by John Stevens
Chiyo-Ni: Woman Haiku Master, translated by Patricia Donegan and Yoshie Ishibashi
The School of Soft-Attention: Poems, Frank Inzan Owen
SOUND MAP
Intersecting Skies / Roy Mattson
Soma / Steve Roach and Robert Rich
Sounds of Summer / Nature Sounds Society, Japan