Tag: writing

Pi Day

apple pie

endless numbers flow,
a circle’s secret message,
Pi enough for all
— Bashō no yōna, Pi Day

Pi (π) is a mathematical representation, approximately 3.14159, of the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. The sequence of digits do not repeat in any predictable pattern. Thus, Pi is an irrational number, meaning the numbers go on and on to the end of time without ending.

How Dao!

3.1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510
5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 …

Interesting facts:

The frequency of numbers will average out the more decimals that appear. Numbers will occasionally repeat consecutively, numbers will appear consecutively. Since the sequence is infinite, every possible combination will appear. Thus, one will see a Fibonacci sequence (“12321” at position 3,632) or a palindrome (“2002” at position 12,563). See the monkey paradox.

Basho was no mathematician. Basho did not focus on numbers. But Basho’s fame comes from his mastery of the haiku. The form is characterized by its 5-7-5 syllable structure.

Basho on numbers. This was written in 1678, the 5th year of the Enpo era, when Basho was 33 or 34 years old. Basho had not yet taken on the name Basho. Rather, his pen name was Tosei meaning “unripe peach.” To support himself he was working for the waterworks department in Edo. His haiku appeared in a work called 江戸 吟三 Edo Sangin, literally meaning Three Hundred Verses from Edo. It is a collection of 300 verses edited by 信徳 (Shintoku) including haiku by Tosei (Basho) and Shinsho (Sodo). It was written in Edo and published in Kyoto.

Kadomatsu —
The New Year’s pine —
To think,
One night feels like thirty years.

門松やおもへは一夜三十年
kadomatsu ya omoeba hitoyo sanjuunen
— Tosei (Matsuo Basho) New Years, 1678

Note. Kadomatsu (門松), literally gate (門) and pine tree (松). It is a New Year’s decoration made of pine, bamboo, and occasionally flowering plum branches. It is placed at the entrance (gate) of the home to welcome the toshigami (年神), the New Year deity, who brings good fortune. What’s in a name? Notice Basho’s family name was Matsuo 松尾.

omoeba (おもへは), I think, to think, in my thoughts. I like to think Basho’s thoughts had something to do with René Descartes (1596 – 1650) or maybe Blaise Pascal (1623 – 1662) and his Pensées, but that is highly unlikely.

What was Basho thinking?

“The past is prologue,” as Shakespeare said. And what’s to come, one might ask. Basho would literally write the future.

Will this be the year
this unripe peach ripens
in the sun of summer?
Bashō no yōna, 2025

Lost Thoughts

Have you ever had a great thought and let is slip away?

Thoughts drip one by one
Like fresh coffee
Percolating
.
Write it Down
Or its Gone
— Haiku
.
Words on a paper
In my pocket
Gently laundered
— Bashō no yōna, December 2024

Lost and Found

I lost the book long ago, but kept the memory.

Long ago, one summer, between college semesters, while traveling in Europe, I came across a book on a train somebody left. It was a well worn paperback copy of Arthur Koestler’s, The Act of Creation. In a nutshell, the idea was that the creative process consists the interplay of the seemingly unrelated ideas. A left and a right brain sword play. The strike of steel on flint to create a spark of inspiration.

The idea of idea forming held true whether the task was artistic, scientific, or comic. It’s not new unless you look at something from a different point of view. Take an apple, smell it, cut it, cook it or bake it. Let it ferment, you’ve got cider.

The process can occur while brewing a cup of coffee in the morning, or walking the dogs in the park in the afternoon, or lying in bed, trying to sleep, dreaming.

It is a dance between imagination and logic. Let emotion lead and logic follow. One must be willing to play the child and be different.

Fa-La-La-La-La

Costco,
Saturday, December 9, 2023

“Saturday, you must be crazy to shop at Costco.” The text message reads. The store is packed, the lines are long, not everyone, but someone becomes impatient.

Two weeks before Christmas, Bashō no yōna is shopping at the local Costco. Standing patiently in line waiting for a piece of Cheddar cheese, he hears a father and mother with four young children in tow berating the bespectacled septuagenarian who is sweetly smiling but having a hard time cutting the cheese.

Needless to say, Bashō no yōna says,

‘Tis the season
For short tempers,
“Fa–la–la–la–la, la–la–la–la!”

Bashō no yōna, Holiday Season, 2023
Costco Hotdogs, fa-la-la-la-la

Did Bashō no yōna get his hot dog and drink for $1.50?

You bet ya, loaded with relish and mustard, but no onions. Is it cost cutting at Costco?

A hot dog with relish and mustard,
What, no onions!
— Cost cutting at Costco

Bashō no yōna, anytime of the year