Kyoto: The Forest Within the Gate - A transcendent journey in poems and photographs to Japan's ancient capital

A few years ago, when I received the chapbook incarnation of Edith Schiffert's and John Einarsen's Kyoto: The Forest Within the Gate, I felt like I had been surprised by a dream of the ancient capital in the mail.  A new incarnation of this luminous book has been launched; with an IndieGoGo campaign to finance publishing costs. They are asking Kyoto lovers to help support and be a part of this beautiful project (JD):

                                                  Resting on the earth

                                                  who needs satori or faith?

                                                  Embrace what holds you!


Imagine a book enfolding some of the best expat poetry and photography of the 1200-year-old city of Kyoto, cultural and spiritual heart of Japan. For five decades Edith Shiffert, now age 97, has written haiku and poems inspired by the ancient capital. John Einarsen has been making striking yet serene photographs of Kyoto for more than three decades.

Now Edith and John share their vision and love of this magical city with the book Kyoto: The Forest Within the Gate (144 pp, more than 100 duotone photographs and 30 poems). In addition, three renowned writers on Japanese culture, Marc P. Keane, Diane Durston and Takeda Yoshifumi, have contributed illuminating essays. Rona Conti's calligraphy is yet another treat for the eyes.

We plan to publish an edition of this singular book. Its design is complete to the last detail, but for this first edition to go to print we need your help.

Take this transcendent journey to Kyoto by contributing today. All donations are warmly appreciated. Those giving $60 or more will receive a signed edition of this remarkable book.

Kelly Rae Kramer: "I am not ‘war-weary’; I’m hungry for peace."

Soulful anti-war poem by Kelly Rae Kramer via Common Dreams:

I am not ‘war-weary’; I’m angry

… angry at those who think more killing is the answer...

I am not ‘war-weary’; I’m sick

… sick at the thought of all those shot, bayoneted, bombed, gassed, and nuked in war...

I am not ‘war-weary’, but I am tired

… tired of the claim that war can be ‘humanitarian’
… tired of indoctrination into the false belief that war can bring peace...

...I am not ‘war-weary’; I am anti-war

… because war is always a failure
… a failure of diplomacy and understanding
… a failure of will and effort
… a failure of imagination and creativity
… a failure of ingenuity and investment
… a failure of compassion and morality
… a failure to invent and practice real, nonviolent humanitarian action.

I am not ‘war-weary’; I’m hungry for peace.

________________________________________

Kelly Rae Kraemer, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Peace Studies at the College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University in central Minnesota

Read the entire poem here at Common Dreams.

Help restore beautiful Mt. Ogura in Arashiyama, Kyoto - Sunday, March 25, 2012

Via Deep Kyoto:

Poetry lovers and would-be conservationists! This Sunday (March 25th) People Together for Mount Ogura (PTO) needs your help to clean up Mount Ogura - the Poet's Mountain!

Read more here: English Page of 小倉山百人一集の会2012 (PEOPLE TOGETHER FOR MT. OGURA (PTO)):

PTO is a new citizens’ environmental and cultural action NPO, founded in Kyoto, March 2008.

Ogurayama is the beautiful dome-shaped mountain rising on the northern side of the Hozu Gorge as viewed from Arashiyama; a mountain quite unique in its literary associations – from the courtier poets and poetesses of Heian through Priest Saigyo (who had his first hermitage there), Fujiwara Teika (who compiled the karuta collection of 100 Poems by 100 Poets there) right down to Basho (who wrote his Saga Diary there), Kyorai and later haiku poets.

To Mount Ogura
another morning has come
of early winter showers;
when, only yesterday,
all four directions dimly glowed
with red and yellow leaves.

　　　　　　　　 - Fujiwara Teika

Today, Ogurayama is a ‘forgotten mountain’. On the one hand, it has become a storehouse of wildlife – kingfishers, little cuckoos, deer, wild rabbits, monkeys and so forth – for its varied forests comprise both broadleaf deciduous and broadleaf evergreen, with coniferous sections, too.

On the other, its environmental problems have become severe.

PTO and its volunteers are engaged in tackling the rampant pine disease, in replanting, in maintenance of the bamboo groves on Ogura’s lower slopes, and in collection of rubbish tipped illegally and its future prevention.

We work so that Mt. Ogura will once again become a true inspiration for people who seek enjoyment of natural beauty, and will find its rightful place again in the living local culture of Sagano.

Rendezvous: JR Saga-Arashiyama Station ticket barrier at 9:40. Depart: 9:45

Reflecting on 3.11- Speaking to Ishinomaki

A volunteer in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture reflects on the disaster

Could you imagine being here when the earthquake came?
At first you would shake and feel kinda safe,
but then pretty soon you saw a wave coming at your face.
And that tsunami,
Oh mommy!
It’s coming at a face pace.
Maybe you would’ve ran,
but the waves they chased.
And pretty soon you would’ve stopped turned around and shaked.
Maybe in your last time you would’ve thought “oh shit!”
but been glad to be taken away by something magnificent.
Mother Nature had his way,
I said his but I meant her,
But the power thing that she does
Got some people disturbed.
Now I’m looking around the earth that’s scorched.
I can imagine before that a lot of kids would talk.
People playin with their dogs, everybody be happy.
But now we have silence and the ocean and ….
I’ve been around this town and it really hurts my core,
‘Cause the houses that was there, they’re not there any more.
And the people that live there, they’re somewhere else, misplaced.
But a lot of them now got happy smiles on their face
‘Cause there’s a lot of volunteers who came down today,
and they’ve been doing that for a year, or so they say.
So I feel pretty glad to be doing my thing.
I was working and lifting, and now I’m doing it with sing
-ing songs or rapping, how ever you call it.
And if you thought this was stupid,
your attitude is appalling.
We got some garbage over there.
We’ve got garbage piles stacked up high.
A lot of people rest in peace.
They are probably up in the sky.
And it’s cold out here now
but I can remember back then
in Tokyo, blackouts.
I said, “Again?”, but then I thought,
or at least I was reminded that the people up here at no heat,
so I got silent, turned off mine,
used my girl to make some friction,
‘cause I knew the electricity was being distributed
to the people who live around here.
I’m sorry I lost my flow, but you know what, I don’t care
‘cause right now I see a lot of despair in the air.
I see nothing here,
I see nothing there,
I see nothing everywhere,
It’s like, damn, shit…
Now I know it’s been awhile,
so you don’t want to give out donations,
But they still need help,
Don’t be mistaken
And we’re gonna end our rap with a couple of moments of silence.
Listen to the waves, and think if you was there, how would you survive it.

Donations and volunteers are still needed. Consider donating to or joining in with the activities of It's not Just Mud or International Disaster Relief Organization. For a crowd sourced growing list (in English) of organizations contributing to disaster recovery click here, or join in the discussion at Foreign Volunteers Japan.

The rhymer above, known as Rhyming Gaijin, will attempt the record ‘Longest freestyle rap' to raise money for disaster recovery. Information below and more at this link:

The current record is 12 hours exactly.
So he has to go for more than 12 hours.
On March 11th 2012, we will start this challenge at 6:00am in Tamaplaza.
Then we will arrive to Shibuya around 11am.
We will have some charity events in Shibuya and he will stay few hours at each event.
If he can keep raping until 6pm he will beat the record.
But he will keep raping untill he can't rap anymore so we don't know what time we will end this challenge.
This challenge is to raise money for a charity for remembering the 3/11 earthquake.

We will be donating all the money to Its Not Just Mud
http://itsnotjustmud.com/

- Posted by Jen Teeter

"The history we carry is not just our own...what worries us is all ours...as the soul's call to human compassion."

After certain events, then—including The Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011— a new energy from the universe churns what is collective into what is individual to produce the mix Jung called “collective unconscious” which we all share.

The history we carry is not just our own. What worries and gnaws at us, like a dog a bone, is all of ours, as shown by the soul’s call to human compassion.

- Alan Botsford, freedom in harmony

Writers in Support of the Occupy Movement

3,227 Writers in Support of the Occupy Movement: http://occupywriters.com:

We, the undersigned writers and all who will join us, support Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy Movement around the world.

Includes Alicia Bay Laurel (beloved by Japanese eco-peace supporters), Naomi Klein, Alice Walker (published in Japanese in Japan, where she has a huge following), Francine Prose, Noam Chomsky, Salman Rushdie, Eve Ensler, and Jane Hirschfield (poet and translator of Japanese poetry).

Denise Levertov: "We must dare to win not wars, but a future in which to live."

...Let our different dream,

and more than dream, our acts

of constructive refusal generate

struggle. And love. We must dare to win

not wars, but a future

in which to live.

- Denise Levertov, concluding lines from her poem "A Speech for Antidraft Rally, D.C., March 22, 1980”

John Einarsen's In the Realm of the Bicycle up for People's Choice Award!

 Congratulations to John Einarsen for the nomination of his recent book of photography, In the Realm of the Bicycle, for a People's Choice Award.

The photographer (and KJ's founding editor, stylish art director) uses photography as a medium to expand and deepen perception. In this book, the focus is bicycles in Japan's ancient capital, but the field of vision is infinite:

Each encounter I had with a member of this vast race revealed an individual with a personality all its own, the result of a history at once common and mysterious. Inevitably, I came to see them as they really were: creatures who populated the niches and nooks and corners and alleys of neighborhoods and streets and lives....

Most of the images in the book were taken in Kyoto over the years.

Cycle Kyoto adds this note:

Each photo in In the Realm of the Bicycle is a haiku, a brief fleeting moment that contains a larger truth.

To view a sample some of the pages, go to: blurb.com.

The cover of In the Realm of the Bicycle is by long-time KJ graphic designer Tiery Le.

The Kyoto Journal: Perspectives From Asia (a/k/a KJ) emerged from Kyoto's international cultural milieu during the 1980's; the iconic English-language quarterly will embark a new incarnation online in September.

The Practice of the Wild featuring Gary Snyder comes to NY starting Nov. 10

John J. Healey's The Practice of the Wild featuring deep ecologist and poet-essayist Gary Snyder and author Jim Harrison comes to NY this month.

There will be a screening at the Jacob Burns Film Center on Wednesday, November 10. The second event will be an opening night screening at the Quad Cinema (13th Street in Manhattan between 5th & 6th Avenues) on Friday, November 12.

The San Francisco International Film Festival description:

The wild requires that we learn the terrain, nod to all the plants and animals and birds, ford the streams and cross the ridges, and tell a good story when we get back home.

So writes legendary Beat poet Gary Snyder in his influential 1990 collection from which this celebratory documentary takes its name and finds its restoring rhythms of nature, image and word. Occupying a hallowed yet humble position within the realms of poetry, academia, ecological activism and spiritual practice, Snyder has distinguished himself among peers such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac by becoming both a countercultural hero and a Pulitzer Prize winner.

Director John J. Healey skillfully intertwines the many fascinating aspects of Snyder’s journey through nature and across the page, sagely pairing the poet with his cantankerous compadre and fellow scribe Jim Harrison. Together, the two old friends roam the verdant hills of the central California coast, musing eloquently and with hard-won wisdom and earthy humor on Bay Area bohemia, Zen Buddhism and the morally charged interdependence of all living things.

Whether reminiscing about a camping trip with Kerouac, recalling the writing of his seminal Turtle Island or being held by his ankles and dangled over a cliff in Japan as a test of truth-telling, Snyder is a warm and captivating presence.

“Life in the wild is not just eating berries in the sunlight,” the poet tells us, and true to his ageless inquisitiveness, The Practice of the Wild seeks out and finds so much more.

KJ's biodiversity issue features Snyder's seminal "Ecology, Place and the Awakening of Compassion" (first published in Buddhist Peace Fellowship's quarterly, Turning Wheel):

Oecology, as it used to be spelled, is a scientific study of relationships, energy-transfers, mutualities, connections, and cause-and-effect networks within natural systems. By virtue of its finding, it has become a discipline that informs the world about the danger of the breakdown of the biological world. In a way, it is to Euro-American global economic development as anthropology used to be to colonialism. That is to say, a kind of counter-science generated by the abuses of the development culture (and capable of being misused by unscrupulous science mercenaries in the service of the development culture). The word “ecological” has also come to be used to mean something like “environmentally conscious.”

Read Gary Snyder's entire essay — "Ecology, Place, and the Awakening of Compassion" — at KJ online at this page.

(Gary Snyder during his Japan years (1956-1964). Image: Modern American Poetry)

For more on Gary Snyder, see this comprehensive collection of background info at Modern American Poetry.

A set that includes The Practice of the Wild DVD and a companion book (The Etiquette of Freedom) is available at online book dealers for around $US20.

"It's You" - a poem by Misato Hamamura

The following poem was written by Misato Hamamura, a freshman in Tokyo Keizai University's 21st Century Liberal Education Program who is in my English Presentation course. She was inspired to write this piece after visiting Nepal as part of her university’s off-campus international program this summer.

While stark in imagery, her poem gives great hope regarding the power of individuals to reach into their own hearts and create a better world. She presented the poem in class earlier this month, which happened to be her 19th birthday.

It’s You

Humans are ugly.
Money, cheating, lying, greed, absolute power, violence…
Too many weaknesses.
Humans are ugly.

The earth is a factory.
This factory manufactures a great number of guns.
He pointed his gun at me.
She pointed her gun at me.
Someone cried, “Call the police!”
Someone said, “This is like a play with really great dialogue.”
Someone cried, “KILL!”

No one was putting their theories into action.

Humans are beautiful.
Hope, dreams, fathers, mothers, love, peace…
A lot of children.
A lot of smiles.
Humans are beautiful.

The earth is a factory.
This factory manufactures a great number of futures.
Someone said, “This is the birthday of our good fortune.”
Someone said, “Stars are twinkling in the sky.”
Someone cried, “Happiness!”

My hope is humans.
My hope is tomorrow.
My hope is children.

My hope is you.
It’s you.
Following the reading of her poem, Misato facilitated an engaged discussion among class members on the connections between materialism and a loss of soul, and how people in Japan might learn from those in more spiritual-based countries such as Nepal.

Misato (who is pictured below to the far right, at a World March for Peace and Nonviolence event recently held in Tokyo) is presently studying how the issue of poverty serves as the underlying cause of other social problems. She would like to visit the United States, where she hopes to see anti-poverty initiatives in action. She is also studying Korean, and plans to visit Korea in order to promote positive ties between Korean and Japanese youth.

She is one hope-inspiring example of the many young people around the world who are engaged in positive social change, and her poem is a thoughtful call to action for each one of us.- Kimberly Hughes