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Bundles
ExcerptThe Prefacefrom Zen Mercies / Small SatorisThese poems have been styled "zen mercies" and "small satoris" to honour the particular tradition of mindfulness that characterizes tanka aesthetics. But they are, more simply put, just little epiphanies—particular moments of heightened awareness. As Ishikawa Takuboku (1886-1912), a great master of the form, said in defence of his own passionate preoccupation with tanka, "Although a sensation may last only a moment, it is a moment that will never return." The tanka (or waka as it has been traditionally called) dates back more than 1200 years to Japan, where it remains to this day a vital tradition. There are always five lines with conventions for syllabic counts (5,7,5,7,7); but the essence of the form is the briefest of lyrics, intensely focused and rooted in the immediate circumstances of the body in this world. In the last decade or so I have come to adore the discipline and power of tanka, which often seem to work by some mysterious mechanism to test one’s authentic being. By virtue of their brevity, tanka may seem modest and all too human. But if the experience and the articulation of that experience are somehow pure, it may be evident that, for a moment at least, some aspect of the world lies before one, full of glory, and forever fresh. |
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