WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.520 align:middle line:90% 00:00:04.520 --> 00:00:07.505 align:middle line:84% If I have this lavalier microphone, do I need this? 00:00:07.505 --> 00:00:11.390 align:middle line:90% 00:00:11.390 --> 00:00:13.130 align:middle line:90% Can you hear? 00:00:13.130 --> 00:00:14.539 align:middle line:90% Can you hear me? 00:00:14.539 --> 00:00:16.219 align:middle line:90% Something's not right. 00:00:16.219 --> 00:00:18.350 align:middle line:90% Do we need this or this? 00:00:18.350 --> 00:00:19.520 align:middle line:90% Both, you need both. 00:00:19.520 --> 00:00:20.435 align:middle line:90% What does this do? 00:00:20.435 --> 00:00:22.335 align:middle line:84% I think it's just for the camera. 00:00:22.335 --> 00:00:25.100 align:middle line:84% Oh, this is a double power experience. 00:00:25.100 --> 00:00:28.380 align:middle line:90% 00:00:28.380 --> 00:00:30.680 align:middle line:84% Thank you so much for coming tonight. 00:00:30.680 --> 00:00:33.050 align:middle line:84% I'm honored to be here, and to hear 00:00:33.050 --> 00:00:37.760 align:middle line:84% these wonderful words about my work, and that beautiful song. 00:00:37.760 --> 00:00:44.600 align:middle line:84% And I thought as you told that healing song, that I'm walking 00:00:44.600 --> 00:00:46.940 align:middle line:90% with good people here tonight. 00:00:46.940 --> 00:00:47.450 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:47.450 --> 00:00:53.180 align:middle line:90% 00:00:53.180 --> 00:00:56.110 align:middle line:84% I'm going to start with a discussion, 00:00:56.110 --> 00:01:01.330 align:middle line:84% and reference, and some poems that inspired me 00:01:01.330 --> 00:01:04.510 align:middle line:90% when I was in Japan. 00:01:04.510 --> 00:01:06.850 align:middle line:84% I was delivered there by the United States Army 00:01:06.850 --> 00:01:13.285 align:middle line:84% at 18 years old, which meant I had a lot of leisure to think. 00:01:13.285 --> 00:01:16.150 align:middle line:90% 00:01:16.150 --> 00:01:21.550 align:middle line:84% The place I was stationed had been devastated by tsunami. 00:01:21.550 --> 00:01:26.240 align:middle line:84% I was stationed in Sendai for about two years. 00:01:26.240 --> 00:01:29.560 align:middle line:84% And while I was there, I discovered, 00:01:29.560 --> 00:01:32.360 align:middle line:84% and I'm smiling over the use of that word, 00:01:32.360 --> 00:01:35.170 align:middle line:84% I discovered another beautiful place in the world 00:01:35.170 --> 00:01:41.110 align:middle line:84% called Matsushima, a 30 minute light rail ride 00:01:41.110 --> 00:01:43.960 align:middle line:90% north of Sendai. 00:01:43.960 --> 00:01:49.060 align:middle line:84% Matsushima Bay, it's the place in the 17th century 00:01:49.060 --> 00:01:53.080 align:middle line:84% that Basho, one of the most distinguished 00:01:53.080 --> 00:01:58.990 align:middle line:84% Japanese haiku poets, ended his journey to the North. 00:01:58.990 --> 00:02:01.270 align:middle line:84% And on that journey he wrote a combination 00:02:01.270 --> 00:02:06.650 align:middle line:84% of prose and poetry haiku, which are called haibun, haibun 00:02:06.650 --> 00:02:07.150 align:middle line:90% style. 00:02:07.150 --> 00:02:10.360 align:middle line:90% 00:02:10.360 --> 00:02:15.560 align:middle line:84% I took immediately to imagistic poetry when I arrived in Japan. 00:02:15.560 --> 00:02:19.480 align:middle line:84% And that surprised me, because I didn't take directly 00:02:19.480 --> 00:02:23.950 align:middle line:90% to Milton or Yeats. 00:02:23.950 --> 00:02:27.820 align:middle line:84% Of course not, because that's a literature borrowed by a nation 00:02:27.820 --> 00:02:31.210 align:middle line:84% that wants to build its reputation. 00:02:31.210 --> 00:02:36.910 align:middle line:84% Not only was I inspired by these accessible, beautiful images, 00:02:36.910 --> 00:02:42.970 align:middle line:84% but I find them everywhere, in ordinary homes, in businesses. 00:02:42.970 --> 00:02:49.990 align:middle line:84% People in the area recognized the poetry of Basho. 00:02:49.990 --> 00:02:52.690 align:middle line:84% As I say, he ended his journey in Matsushima, 00:02:52.690 --> 00:02:57.370 align:middle line:84% and wrote about it; these beautiful pine islands 00:02:57.370 --> 00:03:00.520 align:middle line:90% in Matsushima Bay. 00:03:00.520 --> 00:03:06.250 align:middle line:84% And so I went there, and acted in his presence, 00:03:06.250 --> 00:03:08.060 align:middle line:90% this great experience. 00:03:08.060 --> 00:03:12.760 align:middle line:84% I thought his poems to myself while I was there, and when 00:03:12.760 --> 00:03:15.100 align:middle line:84% a night when the full moon was there, 00:03:15.100 --> 00:03:18.670 align:middle line:90% to appreciate his poetry. 00:03:18.670 --> 00:03:22.030 align:middle line:84% It had a profound effect on me and I still write haiku. 00:03:22.030 --> 00:03:25.300 align:middle line:84% But more than that, it connected directly 00:03:25.300 --> 00:03:30.850 align:middle line:90% to Anishinaabe dream songs. 00:03:30.850 --> 00:03:33.310 align:middle line:84% I didn't have anything to compare 00:03:33.310 --> 00:03:37.960 align:middle line:84% my fairly limited knowledge and experience in Anishinaabe dream 00:03:37.960 --> 00:03:38.500 align:middle line:90% songs. 00:03:38.500 --> 00:03:41.740 align:middle line:84% It's not what people did every day. 00:03:41.740 --> 00:03:44.500 align:middle line:84% But enough to know when I saw haiku, 00:03:44.500 --> 00:03:49.390 align:middle line:84% that this was a shared literary expression and art. 00:03:49.390 --> 00:03:59.920 align:middle line:90% 00:03:59.920 --> 00:04:04.050 align:middle line:84% And thank you for that picture behind me; 00:04:04.050 --> 00:04:06.900 align:middle line:90% that's Naples, Florida. 00:04:06.900 --> 00:04:11.170 align:middle line:84% If I'd have known it was going to be behind me forever 00:04:11.170 --> 00:04:14.130 align:middle line:84% this evening, I might have selected a different picture. 00:04:14.130 --> 00:04:17.070 align:middle line:90% 00:04:17.070 --> 00:04:20.970 align:middle line:84% And thank you for selecting that quote, because indeed, I 00:04:20.970 --> 00:04:24.030 align:middle line:90% am here by chance. 00:04:24.030 --> 00:04:27.960 align:middle line:84% Not only my experiences in the world, but by age too. 00:04:27.960 --> 00:04:30.180 align:middle line:90% A gift to be as old as I am. 00:04:30.180 --> 00:04:33.120 align:middle line:90% 00:04:33.120 --> 00:04:39.480 align:middle line:84% It's when you get older you get these appreciation, achievement 00:04:39.480 --> 00:04:40.350 align:middle line:90% awards. 00:04:40.350 --> 00:04:43.890 align:middle line:84% They only give achievements to young people, 00:04:43.890 --> 00:04:46.770 align:middle line:90% and to really old people. 00:04:46.770 --> 00:04:49.230 align:middle line:90% It's either coming or going. 00:04:49.230 --> 00:04:51.720 align:middle line:84% You can look forward to some kind of recognition 00:04:51.720 --> 00:04:53.790 align:middle line:90% for your achievements. 00:04:53.790 --> 00:04:57.090 align:middle line:84% Have you ever heard of anybody getting an Achievement Award 00:04:57.090 --> 00:04:58.710 align:middle line:90% at age 40 or something? 00:04:58.710 --> 00:05:00.450 align:middle line:90% I don't think so. 00:05:00.450 --> 00:05:01.740 align:middle line:90% You have to wait 30 years. 00:05:01.740 --> 00:05:06.930 align:middle line:90% 00:05:06.930 --> 00:05:11.820 align:middle line:84% The essence of haiku is a tease of nature, 00:05:11.820 --> 00:05:16.680 align:middle line:84% and I mean tease in the best native practice and tradition. 00:05:16.680 --> 00:05:21.690 align:middle line:84% A tease that's a bond, not a separation. 00:05:21.690 --> 00:05:27.405 align:middle line:84% Haiku is a concise, intuitive, imagic, you know, 00:05:27.405 --> 00:05:32.730 align:middle line:90% like magic, imagic moment. 00:05:32.730 --> 00:05:34.930 align:middle line:84% And when you read one and know it, you know, 00:05:34.930 --> 00:05:37.200 align:middle line:90% you never want to forget it. 00:05:37.200 --> 00:05:43.500 align:middle line:84% Haiku is actually a mood of that creative act, and it's elusive 00:05:43.500 --> 00:05:46.620 align:middle line:84% and it can be ironic, and there's obviously 00:05:46.620 --> 00:05:47.940 align:middle line:90% a sense of place. 00:05:47.940 --> 00:05:52.140 align:middle line:84% It shows motion, motion and nature. 00:05:52.140 --> 00:06:00.690 align:middle line:84% And here's an irony, it also suggests always impermanence, 00:06:00.690 --> 00:06:02.460 align:middle line:90% impermanence. 00:06:02.460 --> 00:06:08.280 align:middle line:84% This small imagistic concise and magic moment 00:06:08.280 --> 00:06:13.350 align:middle line:84% creates a seasonal reference which is impermanent, 00:06:13.350 --> 00:06:20.520 align:middle line:84% and some interaction with nature and a person or two, 00:06:20.520 --> 00:06:25.800 align:middle line:84% experiences of nature itself, and that's impermanent. 00:06:25.800 --> 00:06:30.180 align:middle line:84% It's a tricky fusion of nature, of culture, 00:06:30.180 --> 00:06:32.560 align:middle line:90% and my word of survivance. 00:06:32.560 --> 00:06:36.680 align:middle line:90% 00:06:36.680 --> 00:06:41.510 align:middle line:84% The imagic moments in haiku scenes are virtual, of course. 00:06:41.510 --> 00:06:46.490 align:middle line:84% The fugitive turns of a season, and interior motion, 00:06:46.490 --> 00:06:50.300 align:middle line:84% as you appreciate the either contradiction 00:06:50.300 --> 00:06:53.150 align:middle line:90% or association of the images. 00:06:53.150 --> 00:06:59.180 align:middle line:84% And a continuous sense of presence, not absence, not 00:06:59.180 --> 00:07:03.560 align:middle line:90% abstract, a presence of nature. 00:07:03.560 --> 00:07:06.410 align:middle line:90% Haiku was my first poetry. 00:07:06.410 --> 00:07:10.550 align:middle line:84% I couldn't imagine being John Milton. 00:07:10.550 --> 00:07:13.220 align:middle line:84% The original imagistic associations 00:07:13.220 --> 00:07:17.540 align:middle line:84% of underived experiences, underived, 00:07:17.540 --> 00:07:20.060 align:middle line:90% in the natural world. 00:07:20.060 --> 00:07:23.210 align:middle line:84% The metaphors of my early haiku scenes 00:07:23.210 --> 00:07:28.310 align:middle line:84% were those teases of nature and of memory. 00:07:28.310 --> 00:07:32.360 align:middle line:84% Eighteen years of memory at the time. 00:07:32.360 --> 00:07:36.530 align:middle line:84% The creases of the words actually cut to the seasons 00:07:36.530 --> 00:07:37.940 align:middle line:90% immediately. 00:07:37.940 --> 00:07:44.210 align:middle line:84% Not to the mere cosmopolitan representations or ruminations 00:07:44.210 --> 00:07:47.960 align:middle line:84% of images that we construct, as if they're mirror 00:07:47.960 --> 00:07:50.045 align:middle line:90% images representing nature. 00:07:50.045 --> 00:07:52.740 align:middle line:90% 00:07:52.740 --> 00:07:57.630 align:middle line:84% Matsushima, Matsushima, by chance of the military, 00:07:57.630 --> 00:08:02.310 align:middle line:84% was my first connection to a haiku scene. 00:08:02.310 --> 00:08:05.400 align:middle line:84% The actual place the moon rose over 00:08:05.400 --> 00:08:10.380 align:middle line:84% those beautiful pine islands in the haibun and prose 00:08:10.380 --> 00:08:12.330 align:middle line:90% of Matsuo Basho. 00:08:12.330 --> 00:08:15.720 align:middle line:90% 00:08:15.720 --> 00:08:19.800 align:middle line:84% "Much praise had already been lavished 00:08:19.800 --> 00:08:23.910 align:middle line:84% upon the wonders of the islands of Matsushima", 00:08:23.910 --> 00:08:32.909 align:middle line:84% Basho wrote in his book, Narrow Road to the Deep North, 00:08:32.909 --> 00:08:38.190 align:middle line:84% "yet if further, yet if further praise is possible, 00:08:38.190 --> 00:08:43.470 align:middle line:84% I would like to say that here is the most beautiful spot 00:08:43.470 --> 00:08:47.130 align:middle line:90% in the whole country of Japan. 00:08:47.130 --> 00:08:51.210 align:middle line:84% The islands are situated in a bay about three miles wide 00:08:51.210 --> 00:08:55.480 align:middle line:84% in every direction, and open to the sea." 00:08:55.480 --> 00:08:57.630 align:middle line:90% This is Basho. 00:08:57.630 --> 00:09:00.810 align:middle line:90% "Islands are piled upon islands. 00:09:00.810 --> 00:09:02.850 align:middle line:84% And islands are joined to islands 00:09:02.850 --> 00:09:06.780 align:middle line:84% so that they look exactly like parents 00:09:06.780 --> 00:09:11.970 align:middle line:84% caressing their children, or walking with them, arm in arm. 00:09:11.970 --> 00:09:16.140 align:middle line:84% The pines are of the freshest green, 00:09:16.140 --> 00:09:20.610 align:middle line:84% and their branches are curved in exquisite lines, 00:09:20.610 --> 00:09:24.510 align:middle line:84% bent by the wind constantly blowing through them." 00:09:24.510 --> 00:09:27.810 align:middle line:90% 00:09:27.810 --> 00:09:34.500 align:middle line:84% I was there; in that same haibun scene, 00:09:34.500 --> 00:09:39.180 align:middle line:84% almost three centuries later, and tried my best 00:09:39.180 --> 00:09:43.620 align:middle line:84% to envision the presence of Basho. 00:09:43.620 --> 00:09:46.200 align:middle line:90% I wrote this haiku. 00:09:46.200 --> 00:09:53.340 align:middle line:84% Water Striders "Master Basho wades near shore, 00:09:53.340 --> 00:09:54.045 align:middle line:90% out of reach." 00:09:54.045 --> 00:09:57.720 align:middle line:90% 00:09:57.720 --> 00:09:59.370 align:middle line:84% The United States Army, by chance, 00:09:59.370 --> 00:10:02.640 align:middle line:84% sent me to serve first on Hokkaido Island, 00:10:02.640 --> 00:10:06.420 align:middle line:84% and then at a post near Sendai, Japan, 00:10:06.420 --> 00:10:10.200 align:middle line:84% in the northern part of the country, as you know. 00:10:10.200 --> 00:10:13.140 align:middle line:90% I was 18 years old at the time. 00:10:13.140 --> 00:10:19.050 align:middle line:84% Haiku, in a sense, caught me out on the road as a soldier, 00:10:19.050 --> 00:10:24.930 align:middle line:84% in another culture, and gently turned me back to seasons. 00:10:24.930 --> 00:10:29.160 align:middle line:90% Back to native memories. 00:10:29.160 --> 00:10:31.470 align:middle line:84% Haiku scenes are similar, in a sense, 00:10:31.470 --> 00:10:34.710 align:middle line:84% to the dream songs and visionary images 00:10:34.710 --> 00:10:38.820 align:middle line:90% of the Anishinaabe or Chippewa. 00:10:38.820 --> 00:10:43.560 align:middle line:84% I was inspired by these literary connections at the time. 00:10:43.560 --> 00:10:48.750 align:middle line:84% The association seemed so natural to me now. 00:10:48.750 --> 00:10:53.940 align:middle line:84% Once words, and worlds apart in time and place, 00:10:53.940 --> 00:10:57.450 align:middle line:84% these poetic images came together more by chance 00:10:57.450 --> 00:11:01.020 align:middle line:84% than by fate; and later by intuition, 00:11:01.020 --> 00:11:05.280 align:middle line:90% and by literary consideration. 00:11:05.280 --> 00:11:10.840 align:middle line:84% Many Anishinaabe dream songs are about the presence of animals, 00:11:10.840 --> 00:11:15.420 align:middle line:84% birds, and other totemic creatures of experience, 00:11:15.420 --> 00:11:19.890 align:middle line:90% of visions and of memory. 00:11:19.890 --> 00:11:22.590 align:middle line:84% The same can be said about haiku scenes, 00:11:22.590 --> 00:11:26.070 align:middle line:84% that the visions of nature are the perceptions 00:11:26.070 --> 00:11:29.940 align:middle line:90% and traces of memory. 00:11:29.940 --> 00:11:35.730 align:middle line:84% Kenneth Yasuda wrote in his book, The Japanese Haiku, 00:11:35.730 --> 00:11:39.750 align:middle line:84% "that haiku is an aesthetic experience, 00:11:39.750 --> 00:11:45.870 align:middle line:84% and that sense of a haiku moment is eternal." 00:11:45.870 --> 00:11:49.830 align:middle line:84% He writes that "every word, then, in a haiku, 00:11:49.830 --> 00:11:53.280 align:middle line:84% rather than contributing to the meaning, 00:11:53.280 --> 00:11:59.040 align:middle line:84% as words do in a novel or a sonnet, IS the experience. 00:11:59.040 --> 00:12:03.390 align:middle line:84% That is, the words and image IS the experience, not 00:12:03.390 --> 00:12:05.850 align:middle line:90% a description of it." 00:12:05.850 --> 00:12:11.850 align:middle line:84% That eternal moment is natural reason, in Japanese haiku, 00:12:11.850 --> 00:12:14.050 align:middle line:90% and in Anishinaabe dream songs. 00:12:14.050 --> 00:12:16.750 align:middle line:90% 00:12:16.750 --> 00:12:20.500 align:middle line:84% He writes, "a haiku moment is a kind of aesthetic moment, 00:12:20.500 --> 00:12:24.640 align:middle line:84% a moment in which the words which created the experience, 00:12:24.640 --> 00:12:29.530 align:middle line:84% and the experience itself, can become one." 00:12:29.530 --> 00:12:31.900 align:middle line:84% Haiku scenes and native dream songs 00:12:31.900 --> 00:12:35.200 align:middle line:84% are imagic moments, in this sense, 00:12:35.200 --> 00:12:40.780 align:middle line:84% the actual experiences of nature as an aesthetic survivance. 00:12:40.780 --> 00:12:42.910 align:middle line:84% The Anishinaabe dream songs are visions 00:12:42.910 --> 00:12:46.900 align:middle line:84% of motion and perception, and at the same time, 00:12:46.900 --> 00:12:49.600 align:middle line:90% they tease nature. 00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:52.750 align:middle line:84% Haiku scenes and Anishinaabe dreams songs 00:12:52.750 --> 00:12:55.120 align:middle line:90% are created by natural reason. 00:12:55.120 --> 00:12:59.990 align:middle line:90% 00:12:59.990 --> 00:13:01.690 align:middle line:84% You'll just have to trust me about what 00:13:01.690 --> 00:13:02.905 align:middle line:90% natural reason means. 00:13:02.905 --> 00:13:10.450 align:middle line:90% 00:13:10.450 --> 00:13:13.990 align:middle line:84% My first literary creations were haiku scenes, 00:13:13.990 --> 00:13:18.520 align:middle line:84% and since then that imagistic sense of nature 00:13:18.520 --> 00:13:24.280 align:middle line:84% has always been present in my writing; all of my writings. 00:13:24.280 --> 00:13:29.590 align:middle line:84% I may never know if my haiku are right by nature, 00:13:29.590 --> 00:13:34.240 align:middle line:84% only that the scenes are my best memories of nature. 00:13:34.240 --> 00:13:39.100 align:middle line:84% In this way, my sense of presence, my experience, 00:13:39.100 --> 00:13:45.370 align:middle line:84% and survivance, is in nature and in the book. 00:13:45.370 --> 00:13:48.760 align:middle line:90% 00:13:48.760 --> 00:13:53.680 align:middle line:84% Yosa Buson, another distinguished Japanese haiku 00:13:53.680 --> 00:13:57.070 align:middle line:84% poet, was the son of a farmer, who 00:13:57.070 --> 00:14:00.340 align:middle line:84% was born more than two centuries ago, 00:14:00.340 --> 00:14:07.570 align:middle line:84% and yet we met by chance and nature in the book. 00:14:07.570 --> 00:14:10.510 align:middle line:84% He was a cultural dilettante, and at 00:14:10.510 --> 00:14:13.990 align:middle line:84% the same time a brilliant haiku poet. 00:14:13.990 --> 00:14:17.950 align:middle line:84% Buson writes with wit about the seasons, 00:14:17.950 --> 00:14:23.740 align:middle line:84% and teases his own sense of transience in the world. 00:14:23.740 --> 00:14:28.960 align:middle line:84% He was actually never devoted to nature, as other poets were, 00:14:28.960 --> 00:14:35.080 align:middle line:84% but he created memorable, imagic haiku moments. 00:14:35.080 --> 00:14:40.090 align:middle line:84% R.H. Blyth translated this haiku, Scene by Birdsong. 00:14:40.090 --> 00:14:47.740 align:middle line:84% "Winter rain a mouse runs over the koto." 00:14:47.740 --> 00:14:49.572 align:middle line:90% That's a stringed instrument. 00:14:49.572 --> 00:14:52.470 align:middle line:90% 00:14:52.470 --> 00:14:55.590 align:middle line:84% It's the winter rain, and a mouse 00:14:55.590 --> 00:14:59.680 align:middle line:90% runs over a stringed instrument. 00:14:59.680 --> 00:15:05.050 align:middle line:84% I heard the natural music of that scene two centuries later, 00:15:05.050 --> 00:15:08.170 align:middle line:84% and wrote this haiku back to him, 00:15:08.170 --> 00:15:11.950 align:middle line:84% one early winter in Bena, Minnesota, 00:15:11.950 --> 00:15:15.490 align:middle line:90% on the Leech Lake Reservation. 00:15:15.490 --> 00:15:22.870 align:middle line:84% "Cold rain field mice rattle the dishes, Buson's koto." 00:15:22.870 --> 00:15:27.580 align:middle line:90% 00:15:27.580 --> 00:15:31.150 align:middle line:84% The Anishinaabe dream songs, and tricky stories of creation 00:15:31.150 --> 00:15:35.170 align:middle line:84% that bear the nature and ironies and, yes 00:15:35.170 --> 00:15:38.740 align:middle line:84% the tragic wisdom of natives, were depreciated 00:15:38.740 --> 00:15:42.400 align:middle line:90% by the literature of dominance. 00:15:42.400 --> 00:15:45.280 align:middle line:90% Listen to this. 00:15:45.280 --> 00:15:50.620 align:middle line:84% "The sky loves to hear me sing" is 00:15:50.620 --> 00:15:55.360 align:middle line:84% one heartened invitation to nature in an Anishinaabe dream 00:15:55.360 --> 00:15:56.620 align:middle line:90% song. 00:15:56.620 --> 00:16:00.160 align:middle line:90% "The sky loves to hear me sing." 00:16:00.160 --> 00:16:04.960 align:middle line:84% That's the arrogance of natural reason. 00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:08.050 align:middle line:84% The poet singer listens to the turnout of the seasons, 00:16:08.050 --> 00:16:10.390 align:middle line:84% and then puts the word of his song 00:16:10.390 --> 00:16:13.750 align:middle line:90% directly to the wind and sky. 00:16:13.750 --> 00:16:17.260 align:middle line:84% The gesture, in part is, of course ironic, 00:16:17.260 --> 00:16:19.960 align:middle line:90% and it's a tease of nature. 00:16:19.960 --> 00:16:24.610 align:middle line:90% The sky loves to hear me sing. 00:16:24.610 --> 00:16:26.410 align:middle line:84% I can imagine he had a pretty bad voice. 00:16:26.410 --> 00:16:30.430 align:middle line:90% 00:16:30.430 --> 00:16:35.950 align:middle line:84% Or this one, "With a large bird above me, 00:16:35.950 --> 00:16:39.940 align:middle line:90% I am walking in the sky." 00:16:39.940 --> 00:16:46.500 align:middle line:84% "With a large bird above me, I am walking in the sky." 00:16:46.500 --> 00:16:48.920 align:middle line:84% That's a translation of another avian vision 00:16:48.920 --> 00:16:54.620 align:middle line:84% by an Anishinaabe poet singer, who heard more than a century-- 00:16:54.620 --> 00:17:01.430 align:middle line:84% was heard more than a century ago in northern Minnesota. 00:17:01.430 --> 00:17:04.609 align:middle line:84% Frances Dinsmore, the honorable recorder 00:17:04.609 --> 00:17:09.079 align:middle line:84% of Native songs in ceremonies, especially the Anishinaabe, 00:17:09.079 --> 00:17:11.540 align:middle line:84% translated these strange songs at the turn 00:17:11.540 --> 00:17:13.940 align:middle line:90% of the last century. 00:17:13.940 --> 00:17:18.470 align:middle line:84% The songs are imagic moments, they are haiku moments, 00:17:18.470 --> 00:17:22.550 align:middle line:84% similar to the tease and nature of haiku scenes. 00:17:22.550 --> 00:17:25.849 align:middle line:90% Here are some examples, 00:17:25.849 --> 00:17:30.890 align:middle line:84% "As my eyes look across the prairie, 00:17:30.890 --> 00:17:33.935 align:middle line:84% I feel the summer in the spring." 00:17:33.935 --> 00:17:37.890 align:middle line:90% 00:17:37.890 --> 00:17:44.010 align:middle line:84% "Overhanging clouds echo my words with a pleasing sound." 00:17:44.010 --> 00:17:47.870 align:middle line:90% 00:17:47.870 --> 00:17:52.910 align:middle line:84% "Across the Earth everywhere making my voice heard." 00:17:52.910 --> 00:17:56.130 align:middle line:90% 00:17:56.130 --> 00:18:02.310 align:middle line:84% Any hint of the self is absent in most haiku scenes, 00:18:02.310 --> 00:18:05.460 align:middle line:84% but even one subjective experience is mentioned. 00:18:05.460 --> 00:18:12.750 align:middle line:84% It is not a self of nature, it's the singer's presence 00:18:12.750 --> 00:18:15.210 align:middle line:90% in nature. 00:18:15.210 --> 00:18:19.350 align:middle line:84% Issa, another distinguished native, I'm sorry, 00:18:19.350 --> 00:18:23.220 align:middle line:84% Japanese poet, for instance is moved by nature 00:18:23.220 --> 00:18:26.820 align:middle line:84% as other haiku poets were, and included references 00:18:26.820 --> 00:18:30.570 align:middle line:90% to himself in his haiku scenes. 00:18:30.570 --> 00:18:33.960 align:middle line:84% Similar, in a way, to Anishinaabe 00:18:33.960 --> 00:18:40.860 align:middle line:84% dream singers, who include their presence in nature. 00:18:40.860 --> 00:18:46.290 align:middle line:84% "Issa's whole life was a tragedy" Blyth wrote. 00:18:46.290 --> 00:18:48.690 align:middle line:84% "He was one of those men who attract 00:18:48.690 --> 00:18:52.020 align:middle line:90% failure and misfortune." 00:18:52.020 --> 00:18:54.150 align:middle line:84% "Issa was moved by a sense of fate." 00:18:54.150 --> 00:18:57.550 align:middle line:90% 00:18:57.550 --> 00:19:02.590 align:middle line:84% Blythe writes, "Life goes along joyfully and painfully, 00:19:02.590 --> 00:19:08.830 align:middle line:84% with ecstasy and anguish, and Issa goes with it. 00:19:08.830 --> 00:19:12.880 align:middle line:90% He does not praise or condemn." 00:19:12.880 --> 00:19:21.370 align:middle line:84% Here's Issa, "For you fleas, too, the night 00:19:21.370 --> 00:19:24.460 align:middle line:90% must be long it must be lonely." 00:19:24.460 --> 00:19:29.870 align:middle line:90% 00:19:29.870 --> 00:19:37.820 align:middle line:84% Probably not the standard song we hear about fleas, today. 00:19:37.820 --> 00:19:43.370 align:middle line:84% "For you fleas, too, the night must be long, 00:19:43.370 --> 00:19:47.030 align:middle line:90% it must be lonely." 00:19:47.030 --> 00:19:51.620 align:middle line:84% Issa's sympathies were always with small and weak animals. 00:19:51.620 --> 00:19:54.320 align:middle line:84% Perhaps because he identified himself with them, 00:19:54.320 --> 00:19:59.480 align:middle line:84% as he was a victim of his stepmother's cruelty. 00:19:59.480 --> 00:20:05.150 align:middle line:84% Donald Keene, a distinguished scholar of Japanese literature, 00:20:05.150 --> 00:20:09.780 align:middle line:84% observed that and translated this poem. 00:20:09.780 --> 00:20:17.970 align:middle line:84% "Skinny frog don't be discouraged, Issa is here." 00:20:17.970 --> 00:20:18.720 align:middle line:90% What a comfort. 00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:21.790 align:middle line:90% 00:20:21.790 --> 00:20:22.290 align:middle line:90% Try it. 00:20:22.290 --> 00:20:25.740 align:middle line:90% 00:20:25.740 --> 00:20:32.430 align:middle line:84% See a frog, "Skinny frog, don't be discouraged, Lucy is here." 00:20:32.430 --> 00:20:36.660 align:middle line:90% 00:20:36.660 --> 00:20:38.760 align:middle line:84% Likewise, the Anishinaabe created 00:20:38.760 --> 00:20:41.040 align:middle line:84% an elusive self in their dream songs, 00:20:41.040 --> 00:20:43.890 align:middle line:90% but not the self of nature. 00:20:43.890 --> 00:20:50.010 align:middle line:84% It's their the singer poet's presence in nature. 00:20:50.010 --> 00:20:56.760 align:middle line:84% "With the large bird, I am walking in the sky" 00:20:56.760 --> 00:21:01.170 align:middle line:84% are the voices of visionaries, the motion of intuition, 00:21:01.170 --> 00:21:06.270 align:middle line:84% and actually the transformation of the self, not the ego self, 00:21:06.270 --> 00:21:07.965 align:middle line:90% but the self in nature. 00:21:07.965 --> 00:21:11.020 align:middle line:90% 00:21:11.020 --> 00:21:16.620 align:middle line:84% "The first to come among the birds, bringing the rain, 00:21:16.620 --> 00:21:20.700 align:middle line:90% Crow is my name." 00:21:20.700 --> 00:21:24.420 align:middle line:84% This Anishinaabe dream song is about the arrival of spring, 00:21:24.420 --> 00:21:29.400 align:middle line:84% and the crows, a natural motion of the seasons. 00:21:29.400 --> 00:21:31.170 align:middle line:84% The singer has taken the name of the Crow 00:21:31.170 --> 00:21:36.600 align:middle line:84% and teases a shamanic visionary voice of nature. 00:21:36.600 --> 00:21:42.390 align:middle line:84% The Crow or Raven is a sign of wisdom, tricky wisdom, 00:21:42.390 --> 00:21:44.820 align:middle line:90% maybe even tragic wisdom. 00:21:44.820 --> 00:21:47.440 align:middle line:90% 00:21:47.440 --> 00:21:49.800 align:middle line:90% A dream song. 00:21:49.800 --> 00:21:54.000 align:middle line:84% "Overhanging clouds echoing my words 00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:58.230 align:middle line:84% with a pleasing sound across the Earth 00:21:58.230 --> 00:22:01.365 align:middle line:84% everywhere making my voice heard." 00:22:01.365 --> 00:22:04.350 align:middle line:90% 00:22:04.350 --> 00:22:06.765 align:middle line:84% Surely that's what we all do as poets. 00:22:06.765 --> 00:22:09.530 align:middle line:90% 00:22:09.530 --> 00:22:12.470 align:middle line:84% "Overhanging clouds echoing my words 00:22:12.470 --> 00:22:15.620 align:middle line:84% with a pleasing sound across the Earth 00:22:15.620 --> 00:22:18.440 align:middle line:84% everywhere making my voice heard." 00:22:18.440 --> 00:22:24.730 align:middle line:90% 00:22:24.730 --> 00:22:31.690 align:middle line:90% Basho died on November 28, 1694. 00:22:31.690 --> 00:22:34.420 align:middle line:84% He dedicated this hokku, or haiku, 00:22:34.420 --> 00:22:41.660 align:middle line:84% to his student, Dongshu three days before his death. 00:22:41.660 --> 00:22:43.600 align:middle line:90% Basho. 00:22:43.600 --> 00:22:54.100 align:middle line:84% "On a journey ailing my dreams roam about on a withered moor." 00:22:54.100 --> 00:23:01.840 align:middle line:84% "On a journey ailing my dreams roam about on a withered moor." 00:23:01.840 --> 00:23:07.700 align:middle line:90% 00:23:07.700 --> 00:23:13.370 align:middle line:84% A waiter wrote of this poem, "As it was a balmy day, 00:23:13.370 --> 00:23:17.960 align:middle line:84% many flies had gathered around the sliding screens, 00:23:17.960 --> 00:23:23.420 align:middle line:84% and the students were trying to catch them with a lime stick." 00:23:23.420 --> 00:23:27.740 align:middle line:84% Basho, ailing and almost dead, amused 00:23:27.740 --> 00:23:30.530 align:middle line:84% that some were more skillful than others 00:23:30.530 --> 00:23:34.070 align:middle line:84% in handling the stick, the lime stick, 00:23:34.070 --> 00:23:37.940 align:middle line:84% laughed and said, "Those flies seemed 00:23:37.940 --> 00:23:43.370 align:middle line:84% delighted to have a sick man around unexpectedly." 00:23:43.370 --> 00:23:47.390 align:middle line:84% Now that's an association with nature! 00:23:47.390 --> 00:23:50.930 align:middle line:90% 00:23:50.930 --> 00:23:54.710 align:middle line:84% He spoke no more, those were his last words. 00:23:54.710 --> 00:23:58.850 align:middle line:84% "Those flies seem delighted to have a sick man 00:23:58.850 --> 00:24:00.530 align:middle line:90% around unexpectedly." 00:24:00.530 --> 00:24:03.950 align:middle line:90% 00:24:03.950 --> 00:24:07.280 align:middle line:84% Basho was amused, and the image of the flies 00:24:07.280 --> 00:24:15.660 align:middle line:84% moves me, by my experience with him in the book. 00:24:15.660 --> 00:24:18.920 align:middle line:84% Basho might have teased me over this scene; 00:24:18.920 --> 00:24:23.840 align:middle line:84% my haiku about fat green flies at a restaurant 00:24:23.840 --> 00:24:25.820 align:middle line:90% in Ellsworth, Wisconsin. 00:24:25.820 --> 00:24:29.090 align:middle line:90% 00:24:29.090 --> 00:24:36.245 align:middle line:84% "Fat green flies dance on the grapefruit honor your partner." 00:24:36.245 --> 00:24:39.770 align:middle line:90% 00:24:39.770 --> 00:24:46.730 align:middle line:84% "Fat green flies dance on the grapefruit honor your partner." 00:24:46.730 --> 00:24:50.420 align:middle line:84% A film company was putting together-- 00:24:50.420 --> 00:24:53.180 align:middle line:84% Filming scenes of poets in the upper Midwest, 00:24:53.180 --> 00:24:55.590 align:middle line:84% and I was selected as one of them. 00:24:55.590 --> 00:25:01.100 align:middle line:84% We had to choose a place to read our poems, 00:25:01.100 --> 00:25:02.990 align:middle line:90% and they gave you some choices. 00:25:02.990 --> 00:25:06.770 align:middle line:84% And I chose Ellsworth, Wisconsin- small town, 00:25:06.770 --> 00:25:08.960 align:middle line:90% no stoplight then. 00:25:08.960 --> 00:25:13.100 align:middle line:84% I went into a restaurant of maybe half a dozen tables 00:25:13.100 --> 00:25:17.000 align:middle line:84% and maybe eight stools at the bar. 00:25:17.000 --> 00:25:22.410 align:middle line:84% It was run by a family; mother, father, and daughter. 00:25:22.410 --> 00:25:24.860 align:middle line:84% I guessed at the time the daughter had probably gone 00:25:24.860 --> 00:25:28.250 align:middle line:84% to Chicago, and didn't like it and came back, 00:25:28.250 --> 00:25:30.590 align:middle line:90% happy to be in a small town. 00:25:30.590 --> 00:25:35.090 align:middle line:84% So we arranged to film my reading a poem, 00:25:35.090 --> 00:25:36.630 align:middle line:90% and they agreed. 00:25:36.630 --> 00:25:39.230 align:middle line:84% And so I said, "Now, when I read it--" 00:25:39.230 --> 00:25:40.640 align:middle line:90% we ordered food and things-- 00:25:40.640 --> 00:25:42.800 align:middle line:84% "when I read it and it's filmed, you just 00:25:42.800 --> 00:25:47.340 align:middle line:84% respond exactly how you feel to the poem." 00:25:47.340 --> 00:25:52.760 align:middle line:84% So I read "Fat green flies square dance 00:25:52.760 --> 00:25:56.330 align:middle line:84% across the grapefruit honor your partner" 00:25:56.330 --> 00:26:00.680 align:middle line:84% and she looked at me like I was really cuckoo. 00:26:00.680 --> 00:26:04.730 align:middle line:84% She looked to her parents for permission to insult me. 00:26:04.730 --> 00:26:07.340 align:middle line:90% They agreed. 00:26:07.340 --> 00:26:10.310 align:middle line:84% And she said to the camera, "That 00:26:10.310 --> 00:26:12.770 align:middle line:84% ain't what we do with flies around here, mister!" 00:26:12.770 --> 00:26:24.980 align:middle line:90% 00:26:24.980 --> 00:26:29.990 align:middle line:84% So you'll see my haiku scenes and imagistic influences 00:26:29.990 --> 00:26:32.690 align:middle line:90% in longer poems. 00:26:32.690 --> 00:26:36.470 align:middle line:84% This first poem is "Almost Ashore," 00:26:36.470 --> 00:26:41.405 align:middle line:84% clearly a reference to my age, I'm almost washing ashore. 00:26:41.405 --> 00:26:45.950 align:middle line:90% 00:26:45.950 --> 00:26:51.050 align:middle line:84% "The winter sea over my shoes, shadows and bright round stones 00:26:51.050 --> 00:26:53.900 align:middle line:90% at San Gregorio. 00:26:53.900 --> 00:27:00.740 align:middle line:84% Every wave turns a season, forests adrift, empty shells, 00:27:00.740 --> 00:27:07.430 align:middle line:84% memory of fires so far away in the mountains, and canyons. 00:27:07.430 --> 00:27:13.940 align:middle line:84% Silent pools raise my faces by early tide, 00:27:13.940 --> 00:27:20.255 align:middle line:84% sleight my hand, my shoulders, almost ashore. 00:27:20.255 --> 00:27:22.820 align:middle line:90% 00:27:22.820 --> 00:27:29.060 align:middle line:84% Light breaks over the plover's certain steps, 00:27:29.060 --> 00:27:38.540 align:middle line:84% and my traces of blood bone stone turn natural. 00:27:38.540 --> 00:27:43.360 align:middle line:90% And heavy waves rush the sand." 00:27:43.360 --> 00:27:52.000 align:middle line:90%