Keith Kumasen Abbott
Portrait of a Wooden Monkey God
Our National Poet Haibun
Keith Kumasen Abbott teaches writing and art at Naropa University. Publications include the novels Gush, Rhino Ritz and Mordecai of Monterey; the short story collections, Harum Scarum, The First Thing Coming, and The French Girl. He wrote a memoir of Richard Brautigan, Downstream from Trout Fishing in America (Capra, 1989). His latest poetry book was Next Door to Samsara (Fell Swoop, 2005) and his poems appeared in the recent anthologies Saints of Hysteria (Soft Skull, 2006) and Rimbaud Après Rimbaud (Except Collection Textual, 2004).
His art/calligraphy appear in Shambhala Sun and Buddhadharma magazines and in group and/or solo shows in San Francisco, Denver, Boulder, Shanghai and San Antonio. Ellipsis # 8 magazine recently featured his art and published an interview with editor H. Perry Horton about working as an artist and writer.
Keith notes about The Monkey God above:
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Our National Poet Haibun
In the National Portrait gallery I came upon a room devoted to Walt Whitman. The earliest photograph shows a bearded Quaker—eyes dark but his young face unformed, a little lost. The next one a man on fire—his face sensual, lips and eyes afire—in New Orleans, where else?
And then, around the walls, slowly the Good Grey Poet appears over many years of photographs. One that Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote to say he adored: eyes alight, the smile of an old man barely visible in Whitman’s white bushy beard.
Walt Whitman’s cane—deep
spiral carved out in its center—
supported him they say
Keith Kumasen Abbott teaches writing and art at Naropa University. Publications include the novels Gush, Rhino Ritz and Mordecai of Monterey; the short story collections, Harum Scarum, The First Thing Coming, and The French Girl. He wrote a memoir of Richard Brautigan, Downstream from Trout Fishing in America (Capra, 1989). His latest poetry book was Next Door to Samsara (Fell Swoop, 2005) and his poems appeared in the recent anthologies Saints of Hysteria (Soft Skull, 2006) and Rimbaud Après Rimbaud (Except Collection Textual, 2004).
His art/calligraphy appear in Shambhala Sun and Buddhadharma magazines and in group and/or solo shows in San Francisco, Denver, Boulder, Shanghai and San Antonio. Ellipsis # 8 magazine recently featured his art and published an interview with editor H. Perry Horton about working as an artist and writer.
Keith notes about The Monkey God above:
"The Monkey God was originally for an art show at Naropa University for the Year of the Monkey 2004. It's based on the cedar wood sculptures of Enku, a Japanese hermit artist, who pledged to chop like fifty hundred thousand Buddhas, goddesses and gods all over Japan. My friend Zen brush artist Kaz Tanahashi went around Japan and discovered hidden caches of hundreds in temple attics, stupas, etc. and published a book on Enku. Because of the swift ax cuts Enku's statues can appear inspiring, brooding, radiant, malignant etc depending on the light.
I sensed 2004 was going to a terrible year & so put the monkey in a cart as if he could be wheeled out to pacify or intimidate the public.
posted by mark young at 10:55 AM
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