Frank J. Tassone

Tag: photo

  • A November with Basho, Day 9

    Deeply touched by the famous pine at Takekuma, twin trunks just as long ago… reported to have been cut down and replaced several times, it stood like a relic of a thousand years, impossibly perfect. The poet Kyohaka had given me a poem at my departure: remember to show my master the famous Takekuma pine,…

  • PSA (11/8/19)

    We will attend a college tour at Binghamton University tomorrow. Expect the next A November with Basho, Day 9 later tomorrow, and the #haikai challenge either late tomorrow or Sunday. Busy with business all of this living the dream

  • A November with Basho, Day 8

    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…

  • A November with Basho, Day 7

    Crossed on the ferry at Tsukinowa to the post town of Se-no-ue to see the ruins that were Sato Shoji’s house, beyond town to the left, near the mountains. We were told to look at Saba Moor in Iizuka, and we eventually came to Maru Hill where the castle ruins lay. Seeing the main gate…

  • A November with Basho, Day 6

    A little anxious, thinking of the Shirakawa Barrier, thinking on it day by day; but calmed my mind by remembering the old poem, “somehow sending word home.” I walked through heavy green summer forests. Many a poet inscribed a few words at one of the Three Barriers–“Autumn Winds” and “Red Maple Leaves” come to mind.…

  • A November with Basho, Day 5

    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…

  • Lupine Ultimatum: a #tankaprose

    …She is a howling in the wilderness we can never see… -from The Memory Palace, by Mira Bartók A mere howl away. That’s as far as the family has roamed. That’s all I need do, and their answer will guide me to them. Why don’t I? I am the Alpha, father to my cubs, mate of…

  • A November with Basho, Day 4

    Set out to see the Murder Stone, Sessho-seki, on a borrowed horse, and the man leading it asked for a poem. “Something beautiful, please.” The horse turns his head– from across the wide plain, a cuckoo’s cry Basho, “Narrow Road to the Interior,” Translated by Sam Hamil, The Essential Basho, pg. 8-9 Another Momento Mori…