Iara Lee – Basho and Ginsberg Haiku

Iara Lee – Brazilian film producer, director and activist is the founder of the Cultures of Resistance Network Foundation. From 1989 to 2003, while based in New York, she ran the mixed-media company Caipirinha Productions to explore the synergy of different art forms (such as film, music, architecture, and poetry) and made a number of short documentary films, among them An Autumn Wind (1993), which spotlights the simplicity and grandeur of Japanese gardens and juxtaposes/contrasts the ancient Japanese haiku of the great master Basho with more contemporary haiku from Allen.

A selection of Allen Ginsberg haiku may be read here –  and  here
His adaptation of Basho’s classic frog haiku   (“Old pond/frog jumps in/kerplunk!” ) – here and here 
For his 1978 classroom survey of classic Japanese haiku – see  here and here

For further Naropa teachings on haiku – see this 12-part posting – here,  here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here               

In the film Allen can be heard reading from his own work.
The poems of Basho are read on this occasion by Irene Fitzpatrick.