I don't think we live in the world the haiku masters did

[revolutionR]

I don't think we live in the same world
the haiku masters lived in

Like Basho

how can a monk contemplate
the zen stillness
with nuclear power plants blowing up
down the road

it's one thing to dodge an arrow
or a Samurai sword
but you can't dodge radiation

or chemicals in your tea
or junk in your sea
or polluted as the bee

so poetry will never
find that perfect stillness
that it once did

the flowers will never be as colorful
the snow as ever as white
silence never as silent

but the monks still sit

[the mingo]

I don't think we live in the same world
the haiku masters lived in

Haiku is not about a world. We look upon as fresh a scene as they did.

[mnaz]

Funny, I was just reading about the Los Alamos Weapons Complex (Is that a place, or a condition?) in "Legends of the American Desert," by Alex Shoumatoff. Good (long) book. Lots of cover-up on the radiation issues from this site and the Nevada Test Site.

They brought in all kinds of ex-Nazis and holy rollers to do that righteous work. Burroughs, who spent time at the site (the Los Alamos Ranch boarding school) before Oppenheimer and crew took it over, thinks a deal with the devil was made. But of course when it comes to moralizing, or accusing the weapons makers of being in denial, through the years they've quickly turned it right back on the accusers-- No, it's the "peaceniks" who are in denial (of what would happen if there weren't nuke weapons).

As for power plants, they've gotten much better, but what about the toxic waste piling up? Can't dodge radiation, or really, massive environmental degradation of any kind eventually...

[revolutionR]

nothing woo woo about Haiku.