Through narrow Abumizuri Pass and on, passing Shiroishi Castle, we entered Kasahima Province. We asked for directions to the gravemound of Lord Sanekata, Sei Shonagon’s exiled poet-lover, and were told to turn right in the hillds near the villages of Minowa and Kasashima wgeb we canes ti tge sgurbe if Dosojin. It lies nearly hidden in sedge grass Siagyo remembered in a poem. May rains turned the trail to mud…

Where’s Kasashima?

Lost in the rainy season

on a muddy road

Basho, “Narrow Road to the Interior”, translated by Sam Hamil, The Essential Basho, pg. 12-13

A Night’s Domestic Sojourn

Sometimes the journey passes through famous battlefields. Other times the journey reaches home on a Friday night. When darkness envelops a warm bi-level after a fiery sunset over the Ramapo Mountains. After a week capped off by yet another false-alarm fire evacuation, and an evaluative observation by a supervisor. All ahead of a son’s first college tour to my own Alma Mater. All while a winter cold swells, and the threat of rain looms.

Ah, Binghamton!

to traverse Route 17

after all these years