Walking with Basho: Poems, Rambles, and Rants

By Jerry Lagadec

I dont claim to have any profound answers or life changing insights; Ill leave that to others. But I do believe that we need to make an effort to be more present, particularly now when we are becoming so increasingly distracted. This value judgment is about as arrogant as I get, but thats what I notice in so many people today. I did try to be as truthful as possible about how wonderful, ironic, funny, sad, horrible, confusing, unfair, terrifying, ecstatic, and bizarre this life has appeared to me at times. I guess I just tried to verbalize the feelings and thoughts that I believe weve all had when confronted with the stunning mysteries of this existence - the mother of all our adjectives.

Id like to think that anyone could pick up Walking with Basho and get something worthwhile out of my Poems, Rambles, and Rants which Ive described in the first pages of this book. Perhaps it wont be more than Yeah, thats how Ive felt at times myself . Id be happy with that.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Feb 26, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491726259

Jerry Lagadec

Jerry Lagadec was born in Paris, France on 1942. Later he became an American citizen and served in the U.S. Army as a military police officer. He was educated at Boston College for his Bachelor and Masters degrees. He’s been a professional musician but now concentrates in writing and recording original musical compositions.

Book preview

Walking with

BASHO

POEMS, RAMBLES, AND RANTS

Jerry Lagadec

iUniverse LLC

Bloomington

WALKING WITH BASHO

POEMS, RAMBLES, AND RANTS

Copyright © 2014 Jerry Lagadec.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-2623-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-2625-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014903141

iUniverse rev. date: 02/22/2014

Contents

A Few Opening Remarks:

Two Old Dogs

Abandoned Mary

On the Category of Pets

Cat-alyst

Waves

Breakfast with God

Kinship

July Morning

Shower of Acorns

Gathering Morning Glory Seeds

Transplanting

The Orange in the Trees

Unnamed Weeds

The Forsythia Have Gone Crazy

Two Tomatoes

Bowl of Onions

Backyard Pyramid

Outside our Window

The Robin and the Sky

Morning Prayer

After the Storm

The Flamingo and the Buddha

All around Me

October Rose

Compost-ition

The Last Leaf

Somewhere

Supermarket Schadenfreude.

An Agnostic’s Prayer

Autumn Minuet

Ten Thousand Cars

The Wolves

Apology

Aisle Four

Long-gone Julia

The Law of Averages

Basket of Dead Watches

Omelettes

The Incongruous

This Morning

Sour Old Men.

Remnants

The Prince of Pieces

Worldly Things

Hunky Jesus

Snoopy and the Baby Jesus

Dead Men Singing

Satchmo’s Sutra

Mercy

Hardware Horny

Auntie Pain

Busted Umbrella

Lobsters from Outer Space

Fine Cuisine

The Random Roach

Smiling in Mozambique

Pass the Advil

A Few Opening Remarks:

"A caterpillar,

this deep in fall—

still not a butterfly."

Matsuo Basho [1644]

Two Bashos inspired this book: Matsuo Basho, the master of the haiku—the poetry of brevity that captures complex emotions, images, and thoughts in three lines of 5-7-5 syllables, and Basho, our old Akita, a Japanese breed known for its strength, dignity, loyalty, and courage. They almost became extinct in the months after World War 2 when the Japanese, driven by desperation, used them for food and clothing. Thanks to Morie Sawataishi—who saved the last few—I’ve had Basho’s company and friendship all these years.

I don’t claim to have any profound answers or life—changing insights; I attempted to verbalize the feelings and thoughts that I’ve had when confronted with the enigmas of this existence. I tried to stay honest and weed out any note of falseness. I hope I accomplished that.

I’ve divided Walking with Basho into three categories:

Poems: Most of these were written after our daily walks. I dared to write haikus to accompany these; but like that caterpillar, I’ll let you judge if any of them managed to sprout any wings.

Rambles: These are general, philosophical ruminations and observations that originated during our leisurely walks. We’re both seventy and neither of us walks very fast.

Rants: Totally self-indulgent—We all need to let off some steam.

I dedicate this effort to my two walking partners: my wife Diane, whose support has been instrumental in getting me to stop doubting and procrastinating, and of course to our old Akita whose continued enthusiasm has inspired me to imitation.

I sometimes feel like a man stranded on an island, waving frantically to other island dwellers, hoping to muster enough courage to brave the shark infested waters.

I feel braver already.

If you’re reading this book, thanks for waving back!

Two Old Dogs

Most mornings—weather permitting—Basho and I take a walk.

Named after that master of Haiku, he’s a Japanese Akita, a breed known

for their samurai stoicism and silent dignity.

They practice an economy of bark; when they bark, you listen!

We’re