Through
the
Torii 
Kyoto
Nikko
Tokyo
Houses of Sleep
Daibutsu
Spring
Willow Woman
East West
Hibachi
Decline of Taste
Fourteenth
Handkerchief
Morning-Glory
Plum-Blossom
Chrysanthemum
Cherry-Blossom
Rossetti
Whistler
Note on Yeats
Oscar Wilde
Hokku
Again on Hokku
On Poetry
Again on Poetry
Morning Fancy
Insularity
Flowers
Faith
Moods
Life
Happiness
Beauties
Truth
Ugliness
Netsukes
Ink Slab 
 

 

 

 

ON POETRY


I KEEP my eyes unswervingly upon poetry (do you ask me what is poetry?)—if I succeed in poetry it is my only secret.  It is common enough to say that, but it is least understood even among the so-called poets.  To fix my sharp attention is not the only way of perceiving the object (I never think, however, of poetry as my whole object in life); but my attention is most keen when my power of inattention fully sways.  You have to learn that most difficult art how to be inattentive; it is perfectly arbitrary to say that one gets his poetry at the unexpected moment.  All of my practice is spent in that very inattention.  When my inattention is all well developed I can keep my unswerving eye perfectly upon poetry.  I say again that when I forget poetry it is the time when I am wholly with poetry.  I always fail to write poetry when I think I will write it.
    And when I perfectly perceive the real poetry, I never think I am before its presence; because the poetry and I are all one.  At that moment, the sensations and impressions (I feel [147] them when the high water mark is not yet attained) at once subside; and only the poetry that is the real 'I' remains.  Indeed, to gain the true poetry is the question of one's nerve; and I say also that you cannot have the true poetry with that nerve itself; I mean that you can have the poetry when your nerve becomes non-nerve.  And you must let the poetry write itself; I mean that you must get your own true self.  That is my secret if I have any.
    Poetry is so interesting at least in my case, because it makes me find my own self; it is so important, because it teaches me the real proportion between me and Nature.  It is so educative and edifying, because it makes me philospohical; to be philosophical is the very way to build one's character, because it makes one gain silence, for silence is the real foundation of character. [148]



Next chapter: Again on Poetry