(form is only emptiness,
emptiness, only form.)
Japanese Tanka,
syllable structure
zen
oulipo Poetry.
} Threads.
zen
Poetry, structure, Oulipo.
I’m working on a series of connecting
pieces, threads, linking together the
ideas, and themes from my literature
review.
I’ve been exploring Japanese Poetry, the
Tanka, syllable structure, theatre - the
Nō Drama, and the Haiku. In Zen buddhist
meditation, there is a principle, of
emptiness and form - in form only
emptiness, in emptiness, only form.
Where there is structure there is
nothing - the teachings of zen, are
structure, provide, create structure,
beyond there, only emptiness, for find
form, create structure (there is nothing
beyond, and the principle, is to attain -
to nothing.) And in emptiness, only
form.
In Japanese poetry, the structure is
created, in the Tanka, the syllable
structure, for five lines, is 5, 7, 5, 7, 7.
Within this, the poem arises. Meaning
/
arises from the structure, or the structure,
is the poem. The form in the poetry, is the
content. The moment, the meditation
arises from it.
Oulipo poetry, the work of Perec, Life a
User’s Manual, creates a structure. A
grid, a series of rules, and structures
within which the content exists, emerges,
from the structure.
“a wooden jigsaw puzzle - is not a sum of
elements to be distinguished from each
other and analysed discretely, but a
pattern, that is to say a form, a structure:
the element’s existence does not precede
the existence of the whole.”
VOID IN FORM
When, just as they are,
White dewdrops gather
On scarlet maple leaves,
Regard the Scarlet beads!
IYYKU
Practice and Research.
Lisa leant (loaned) me a book, practice
as practice (research.)
/
FORM IN VOID
The tree is stripped,
All colour, fragrance gone,
Yet already on the bough,
Uncaring spring!
— IKKYU
The penguin Book of Zen Poetry
Edited and Translated by Lucien Strykard
Takashi Ikemoto
Middlesex 1981
Life: A User’s Manual
Georges Perec
Translated from the French by David Bellos
Vintage, London, 2003.
