WABI-SABI POETRY

Wabi-sabi is hard to define. The Japanese love ambiguity and believe that no deep understanding can come with the spoken word. Zen beliefs are also not easily explained with words and wabi-sabi emerged from Zen tenets. To explain them with words would diminish them. Zen led to the birth of the tea ceremony and wabi-sabi grew out of the tea ceremony.

image found at Wasbella102.tumblr.com here.

Therefore, both Zen and wabi-sabi maintain a mysterious, elusive quality. The fullest explanation is that they are a way of life, with an appreciation of a particular type of beauty or aesthetic.

image by nikola - n k l s at Flickr site here.

Wabi-sabi is an appreciation of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. It is a beauty of
things modest, humble and unconventional.

image found at indigenousdialogues.tumblr.com here.

All things are impermanent. All things are imperfect. All things are incomplete.

Things are either devolving toward or evolving from NOTHINGNESS. Nothingness does not have the same meaning as in Western cultures. Zen followers see new things or life emerge out of 'nothingness'.

India Flint's eco-dyed bundle waiting to be opened. blog here.

Nothingness is alive with possibilities.

image by Game Texture Images here.

Accept the inevitable... life is fleeting and transient.... impermanent. That is why Zen teaches one to live in the moment... focus on the intrinsic small details... and get rid of the unnecessary.

That is why Zen and wabi-sabi are so tied to nature. Truth comes from observing nature.

To be alone
It is of a color that
Cannot be named:
This mountain where cedars rise
Into the autumn dusk.
-- 12th century poet, Jakuren

Mineo Mizuno, moss on ceramic

There is a melancholy associated with the cycle of impermanence.. the transience of life and death. Everything is in flux, and one is invited to abandon yourself to the unrivaled beauty and natural imperfection of the fleeting world.

image by Veronika Studer at Flickr here.

Wabi is a way of life, with inward philosophical thinking. Sabi refers to the material objects, which convey the Wabi way of thinking. Words for wabi-sabi include: warm, dark, personal,

organic, ambiguous, seasonal, life and death, earthy, present (in the moment), decayed....

Charles Austin, teapot, image from Butters Gallery link here.

... weathered, rusty, rough, non-fnctional, irregular, not symmetrical....

Simplicity and focus on minimal details and subdued colors are very central to wabi-sabi.

An organic feel with little or no defined design is preferred. Objects are functional rather than decorative, with a naturalness and ease of use.

Dark, muted, subdued and limited colors are preferred. Rough edges are revered.

image by blackwood (no real name given), Flickr site here.

All that is uncared for.
Left alone in the stillness
in that pure silence married
to the stillness of nature.
--- Linda Gregg

The World is a Book

This past summer I acquired a number of books. Some of them I read from cover to cover.
Some of them are half way there.

The Gary Snyder Reader is a collection of prose, essays, letters, poetry, and translations by Gary Snyder between 1952 and 1998. Gary Snyder is a prize-winning poet, environmental activist, Zen Buddhist, and earth-householder.

No end to the sky---

but his poems,
like wild geese,
fly off the edge. - GS

LIVING ZEN by Michael Paul is a beautiful picture book. This book places the ancient wisdom of Zen Buddhism in a modern, everyday context, showing how Zen can influence every aspect of lifestyle from home interiors to garden design.

"Open yourself to the light, images and reality around you." The idea that life is here and now and not something we should postpone to a future date-- means IN THE MOMENT.

No matter what medium you choose--- photography, poetry, dance, music, painting, acting--
you will, by virtue of being in the moment, improve the quality of your art.

BUDDHA MIND IN CONTEMPORARY ART (edited by Jacquelynn Baas and Mary Jane Jacob) is a series of essays and interviews that explores the relationships between Buddhist practice and the contemporary arts. Finding the common ground between the creative mind, the perceiving mind, and the meditative mind, this book tackles the relationship between life and art.

Look deeply: I arrive in every second.... Thich Nhat Hanh

THE CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHER by Catherine Anderson is an instruction book with a focus on the creative, rather than the technical, side of photography. Using your camera, image-processing software (like Photoshop Elements), and art supplies-- this book will transform a favorite photo into something more personal and unique. Express yourself.

The above image is from a chapter on ALL THINGS OLD AND BEAUTIFUL. Wabi-sabi is introduced: "Wabi-sabi is akin to the inherent beauty within, something you can't put your finger on...to open your senses to every detail..." -- Daisuke Utagawe

Zen and the Magic of Photography: Learning to See and to Be through Photography by Wayne Rowe also helps one discover, create, and capture the points of intersection and merging between photography and Zen, between camera and "real moments".

Above is an image from the book. A summer mistral: Sun and shadows dance; A door slams; the cat hisses.

THOUGHTFUL GESTURES: The Calligraphic Art of Yves Leterme includes more than a 100 images that showcase his work as a commercial calligrapher and a lettering artist. He discusses his use of gestural writing in his experimental artwork. You can find out more information on how to order this wonderful book at Leterme's blog Animal Scribax here.

"In my latest work, I have often tried to capture that spirit of Wabi-sabi... a true Wabi-sabi piece derives its quiet authority from subtle details, small doses, a limited palette and simplicity." YL

TEA IN THE EAST by Carole Manchester was sent to me as a surprise gift from my BLOG friend
Che'usa Sienna Wend. Her wonderful blog/website Bricolage can be found here. This is a beautiful picture book that includes the history of tea in China, Japan, India and Sri Lanka.
There are wonderful images along with recipes and poetry and quotes.


Not a color to disturb the tone of the room, not a sound to mar the rhythm of things, not a gesture to obtrude the harmony, not a word to break the unity of the surroundings, all movements to be performed simply and naturally----such were the aims of the tea ceremony. ---Kakuzo Okakura The Book of Tea

Boro: rags and tatters

new work, 2010, acrylic and collage rice papers

BORO: Rags and Tatters from the Far North of Japan. ed. Yukiko Koide and Kyoichi Tsuzuki.
The Boro shown in this book is the sum of 40 years of field work by researcher Chuzaburo Tanaka. A few decades ago, Tokoku and Aomori, the northern part of Japan (snow country), meant 'dire poverty' to most Japanese. These dirt poor farmers, out of desperate necessity, created an astonishing textile out of boro- mere rags. Boro became 'survival' and any scraps of old cloth were coveted. The smallest snippets were saved and re-used over and over until the rags finally turned to ash and returned to the soil. Work jackets to bedding, were stitched, layered and repaired over and over. This cultural heritage survived and is now revered.

Things wabi-sabi are expressions of time frozen. They are made of materials that are visibly vulnerable to the effects of weathering and human treatment. They record the sun, wind, rain, heat, and cold in a language of discoloration, rust, tarnish, stain, warping, shrinking, shriveling, and cracking...they still possess an undiminished poise and strength of character. Leonard Koren, WABI-SABI, for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers

Things wabi-sabi are usually small, quiet and inward-oriented. They beckon: get close, touch, relate.

Things wabi-sabi may exhibit the effects of accident, like a broken bowl glued back together again. Or they may show the result of just letting things happen by chance.

India, who lives in Australia, makes felt using wool and water and woven textile fabrics, and dyes cloth using plants and water. You can find her very entertaining blog, Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost, here and her beautiful website here.

Regina lives on Caribbean island called Netherlands Antilles. She works with paper and fabric, and her beautiful blog, Mostly Turquoise, can be found here.

For this piece titled BRANCHING OUT, Lorraine at Creative Daily used photographs of branches and bare trees, which she digital manipulated, printed the images on fabric and then pieced them together for this journal cover. You can find her wonderful blog here.

QUILTS by Nikki Giovanni

When I am frayed and strained and drizzle at the end
Please someone cut a square and put me in a quilt
That I might keep some child warm
And some old person with no one else to talk to
Will hear my whispers