Three Turtles on a Log: Seventeen-Syllable Zen

by Kevin McLaughlin

Zen and haiku are the two most wildly abused and misused words in any language. THREE TURTLES ON A SEVENTEEN SYLLABLE ZEN provides an antidote to this condition and presents new haiku in the classical form. Haiku is intended to follow a precise form. If a verse is not consistent with the form and traditions, it may be a haiku-like image, but it is not a haiku. Ultimately, in addition to exhibiting correct structure, a haiku must be understood in relation to Zen, Chan, one of the othe Buddhist schools, or Taoism. This volume owes a debt of gratitude to R.H. Blyth's well known four volume HAIKU series, to Robert Aitken's A ZEN WAVE, to Matsuo Basho's THE NARROW ROAD TO THE DEEP NORTH, and to essays by Alan Watts and Nancy Wilson Ross that appeared in THE WORLD OF ZEN, edited by Nancy Wilson Ross. All of the haiku in THREE TURTLES ON A SEVENTEEN SYLLABLE ZEN with the exception of Basho's "Old Pond" and "Taking One Off" are original. Sean Yeats, Master Shogen, and Huangfu Mi, characters appearing in various commentaries and tales, are entirely fictional.

Paperback

First published March 24, 2013

About the author

For the Fantasy/Sci-fi/Litrpg author, try Kevin O. McLaughlin