Not a Book Review (original) (raw)
FEATURED 📌 Rating: ★★★★★ 15/11/15 Haiku should be just small stones dropping down a well with a small splash – James Kirkup (8) Haiku or the complexity of subtlety As a big fan of etymology, I was captivated by this book’s introduction. It is a clear and detailed recount of the history of haiku. The present enthralling … More The Classic Tradition of Haiku: An Anthology – Faubion Bowers (Editor)
Rating: ★★★★ 14/09/19 * I was googling “dancing daffodils” (I had my reasons) and found this fascinating poem by chance. It starts with a beautiful line, a familiar state of mind. I wandered lonely as a cloud – sheer brilliance. But the sense of familiarity and solace doesn’t end there. I wasn’t particularly drawn to Wordsworth’s … More I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud – William Wordsworth
Rating: ★★★★ 17/08/19 Yesterday, to celebrate Bukowski’s 94th birthday, “the poet of the mundane”, some Twitter account posted: cuidado con aquellos que necesitan constantes multitudes, no son nada solos.* I translated the phrase and found a poem called “The Genius of the Crowd”, and doing justice to my ambivalent feelings about this writer, I loved every … More The Genius Of The Crowd – Charles Bukowski
Rating: ★★★★ 22/05/19 How lovely through the torn paper window —the Milky Way Born as Kobayashi Nobuyuki in 1763, in today’s Nagano Prefecture, the poet later known as Issa got acquainted with death since his early years. Such loneliness and his love for nature were portrayed in the over 20.000 haiku he wrote. Frogs, sparrows, snails, … More Inch by Inch: 45 Haiku by Issa – Kobayashi Issa
Rating: ★★★★★ 01/07/19 Keep me from the old distress; Let me, for our happiness, Be the one to love the less. – Dorothy Parker, “Somebody’s song” It takes a certain kind of humor, singularity and incurable ennui to be able to enjoy this poetry collection written by a woman whose words had the ability to build … More Enough Rope – Dorothy Parker
Rating: ★★★★ 13/05/19 Interior Her mind lives in a quiet room, A narrow room, and tall, With pretty lamps to quench the gloom And mottoes on the wall. There all the things are waxen neat And set in decorous lines; And there are posies, round and sweet, And little, straightened vines. Her mind lives tidily, apart … More Sunset Gun: Poems – Dorothy Parker
Rating: ★★★★ 01/05/19 By the sea stands a green oak tree; A golden chain strung round it: And on the chain a learned cat Day and night circles round it; Walking right, he sings a song, Walking left, he tells a tale. — Alexander Pushkin The tale, this time, is not about Ruslan and Ludmila, the … More The Three Sisters – Anton Chekhov
Rating: ★★★★ 06/04/19 Taking hold, one’s astray in nothingness; Letting go, the Origin’s regained. Since the music stopped, no shadow’s touched My door: again the village moon’s above the river. —Kokai (1403-1469) This anthology consists of four parts: Chinese poems of enlightenment and death, Poems of the Japanese Zen masters, Japanese haiku and selected poetry by … More The Penguin Book of Zen Poetry – Lucien Stryk
Rating: ★★★★★ 02/03/19 The man who talked poetry Yosa Buson (1716–1784), a Japanese poet and painter of the Edo period. He is one of the four masters of haiku, the others being Matsuo Bashō, Kobayashi Issa and Masaoka Shiki. It has been said that Buson admired Bashō greatly (The Narrow Road to the Interior was a … More The Moon Over Tagoto: Selected Haiku of Buson – Gabriel Rosenstock, John McDonald
Rating: ★★★★ 30/03/19 Closed are the doors Closed are the doors that were to be open to me forever. And those I can open guard vacant places like ancient despolied graves. I think about the love of people who have forgotten to take down decorations after the festival: what do they have left? Farewell to you … More Great Tranquillity: Questions and Answers – Yehuda Amichai
Rating: ★★★ 23/02/19 I know you shouldn’t keep telephoning them—I know they don’t like that. When you do that they know you are thinking about them and wanting them, and that makes them hate you. What sort of creature have you been dating? Such a man is not worth a prayer to any god for a … More A Telephone Call – Dorothy Parker