At Ashino, the willow Saigyo praised, “beside the clear stream,” still grows along a path in fields of rice. A local official had offered to lead the way, and I had often wondered whether and where it remained. And now, today, that same willow: Rice-planting done, they depart–before I emerge from willow shade Our Maple…

On the first day of the fourth moon, climbed to visit the shrines on a mountain once called Two Wildernesses, renamed by Kukai when he dedicated the shrine. Perhaps he saw a thousand years into the future, this shrine under sacred skies, his compassion endlessly scattered through the eight directions, falling equally, peacably, on all…

Very Early on the twenty-seventh morning of the third moon, under a predawn haze, transparent moon barely visible, Mount Fuji just a shadow, I set out under the cherry blossoms of Ueno and Yanaka. When would I see them again?… Spring passes and the birds cry out– tears in the eyes of fishes Sam Hamill…

Poet Jane Dougherty led us on a November journey in 2017, when she hosted a W.B Yeats challenge in lieu of #NaNoWriMo. Inpired by her example, I have decided to embark on a comparable journey. This november I will post excerpts from “The Narrow Road to the Interior” (Translation by Sam Hamill) by master poet…