Thank you Dr. Smith

This weekend we had the honor of creating and listening to zen poetry with Dr. Larry Smith from Sandusky Ohio. In the midst of a light summer rain Larry read from older and contemporary poets to give us a flavor of the zen style. He urged us to write from within the images rather than talking around them. We sat patiently for our subject to present and express itself. Then had the great pleasure and agony of rendering it in 5-7-5. After we read to each other we placed them in the middle of enso's drawn earlier in the morning.

In the afternoon Larry gave a reading from a book of Ryokan's poetry he has translated in Japanese, Chinese and English to the sounds of the shakuhatchi. He recounted an event he participated in at the Thoreau society wherein he read Ryokan's work and a Thoreau impersonator responded in kind with Thoreau's words from the Woods.

Jay and I were married by Walden pond....It occurs to me that we are all still part of the conversation started by our transcendentalist ancestors. I think they would be pleased in how we are taking up the project....