yes gentle readers covid is still a thing.
someone in horsemouth's house has just tested positive for it. in retrospect this makes horsemouth believe that he must have had covid as well (that'll be the 'cough and cold' he keeps (hopefully) referring to). he does hope he hasn't infected anyone else. he doesn't feel particularly guilty (infectious disease - the clue is in the name) but he does blame himself for falling for the prevalent desire that it be over.
last night the prisoner - a kafkaesque nightmare set in port merion.
matsuo basho and robbie basho and steffen basho-junghans
two days after the last day of fahey week 2023.
maybe robbie basho saw himself in a portrait of matsuo basho (now in the itsuo museum, museum in ikeda city, osaka), the one that graces the cover of the penguin paperback. matsuo basho looks thin and wirey, with heavy grey stubble.
it is not the portrait of basho by katsushika hokusai, nor by nakamura hochu, or emori gekkyo.
robbie basho, on the other hand, is altogether bigger framed (he's a great galumphing boy).nonetheless there is a similarity. .
there are many hokusai prints and drawings of travellers. it is possible to imagine that these are matsuo basho (and one of his various companions) on a journey. sometimes basho would take a horse (sometimes it would throw him off).
robbie basho wanted up and out. (and he did it!) he got to california. he got to make acoustic guitar music infuenced by a wide range of oriental musics. perhaps it was his love of debussy that got him there. that enabled him to make those connections.
steffen basho-junghans died this year gone. he became interested in robbie basho first and as a result matsuo basho, incorporating them into his name.
there is something marvelous about the concision and portability of books of poetry (and good songs). horsemouth is up (he has just finished his coffee), he plans a day of a little light shuffling about.
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