A Good Gig if You Can Get It

A few days ago my son and I went to the library and he picked out a few books to read. He picked them based on their covers mostly. One of the books that we brought home was Basho and the River Stones by Tim Myers, illustrated by Oki S. Han. It is story whose main protagonist is Matsuo Basho, a famous 17th century Japanese poet. In fact, Basho is the one often credited with really developing the haiku into the popular form of poetry it still is in Japan. The book is really good on lots of levels.

We just got around to reading it this morning and after we were done, my son asked when Basho had been born. I went online and looked him up. Basho was born in 1644 into lower nobility. He eventually gave up any claim to titles and land to become a poet.

After becoming famous for his haiku, he took on twenty disciples and became a teacher. After a stint living as a recluse in a hut his disciples had built for him (that first one burned and they ended up building two more before he died), he took up traveling and writing about his journeys. He became ill on his last trip and died peacefully, surrounded by his disciples. Here is the last poem attributed to Basho:

Falling sick on a journey
My dream goes wandering
Over a field of dried grass

According to Tim Meyers (Author’s Note), Basho “lived a life of simplicity, spirituality and endless travel, all of which found expression in his writing.” He dedicated his life to “seeing, smelling, tasting, feeling, hearing, considering, and appreciating in the most intense way possible, with his whole being.”

Now that is a good gig! Travel, write poetry, have disciples and have them build you huts, live to experience the world and write about it. I think Basho’s approach just leap-frogged going to the Tour de France as the tippety top of my “to do” list. Now if I can just find someone who will pay for me and my wife and kids to travel around and let me write about it. I can take my bike and get some rides in, too. Maybe I can travel to le Tour and write about that. I wonder if anyone has written a haiku about the Tour?