Poetry has a profound role in Zen study. Much of the emphasis is on haiku and enlightenment poems- short, sharp apprehensions of moment. This tradition had a vast influence on American poetry in the early part of the 20th century.
Ernest Fenollossa laid the fuse and Ezra Pound, compounding EF's mistakes, lit it. The book Pound read was called "The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry" (interesting essay here) and it set off the explosion called Imagism, which arguably swept away the poetry of the Victorian age. At least among "interesting" poets.
Hard, precise images. Suspended in space, and somewhat, in time. Moments. An American haiku. I find it intriguing that so many of the poets who worked this vein can be claimed, in part, by Philadelphia. Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, and today's poet...Marianne Moore. Much as the Philly connection has been under-scrutinized, so has Moore's entire body of work. I think she will be radically reconsidered someday. The poem that follows has exactly the type of perception I would love to cultivate in our students.
The Fish
wade
through black jade.
Of the crow-blue mussel-shells, one keeps
adjusting the ash heaps;
opening and shutting itself like
an
injured fan.
The barnacles, which encrust the side
of the wave cannot hide
there, for the submerged hafts of the
sun,
split like spun
glass, move themselves with spotlight swiftness
into the crevices-
in and out, illuminating
the
turquoise sea
of bodies....
see the whole poem here
If you are interested in a wonderful little museum, filled with art and old books (as well as Marianne Moore's reconstructed office) go to the Rosenbach Museum in Philly. It is one of my favorites. (edit: garbled diction!)
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