Ikkyu

July 18, 2004 10:22 PM

Ikkyu:A wild raunchy zen poet.
posted by srboisvert (9 comments total)

Wonderful! Ikkyu is a favorite.

I love the joyousness, and the mixing of profound beautiful poems with ones like:

A Man's Root:
Eight inches strong, it is my favourite thing;
If I'm alone at night, I embrace it fully -
A beautiful woman hasn't touched it for ages.
Within my fundoshi there is an entire universe!

(A fundoshi is a type of loose-fitting underwear once worn by Japanese men.) (*)

Oh, sad: the Shambhala "Wild Ways" collection of his work is out of print - I hope I still have mine somewhere...
posted by freebird at 10:51 PM on July 18, 2004

great links, thank you!
posted by cell divide at 1:03 AM on July 19, 2004

Don't you have to question his commitment, though? I mean, how much of a Zen monk was this guy?

Lots of arms, just like Kannon the Goddess;
Sacrificed for me, garnished with citron, I revere it so!
The taste of the sea, just divine!
Sorry, Buddha, this is another precept I just cannot keep.

---

Exhausted with gay pleasures, I embrace my wife.
The narrow path of asceticism is not for me:
My mind runs in the opposite direction.
It is easy to be glib about Zen -- I’ll just keep my mouth shut
And rely on love play all the day long.

posted by Blue Stone at 3:16 AM on July 19, 2004

My favourite:

that stone Buddha deserves all the birdshit it gets
I wave my skinny arms like a tall flower in the wind

great links, sir greenwood.
posted by louigi at 6:36 AM on July 19, 2004

Punk. As. Fuck.

Excellent writing. Thanks, Sr. B.
posted by chicobangs at 6:44 AM on July 19, 2004

four stars!
posted by cohappy at 8:08 AM on July 19, 2004

Don't you have to question his commitment, though? I mean, how much of a Zen monk was this guy?

No, and A Whole Lot.
Seriously. Maybe if you just read the sexy stuff, but he's for really real.

"If you break open the cherry tree,
Where are the flowers?
But in the spring time, see how they bloom!"
posted by freebird at 8:40 AM on July 19, 2004

Best zen poet evar.
posted by abcde at 10:33 AM on July 19, 2004

Nah, I don't buy it.

If he wanted to be a monk, he should have been a monk. If he wanted to act like a layman, whoring and meat-eating his way through life, then he shoulda ditched the robes (which are, after all, a symbol of renouncing the world).

There's nothing stopping a layman being "for really real".

<Puts on robe, picks up crack-pipe and uzi, summons bitches, and bathes in the adoration of fools.>
posted by Blue Stone at 3:01 AM on July 20, 2004