Five years before his death Matsuo Basho made a long trek through Japan's
"wild north," writing, The journey itself is home. Walking on ageing legs with
a troublesome stomach today, the poet writes: "How can I not journey to the
wild unknown when the earth is my home?"

6:45: Close & lock the door. A warm wind blows through the aqua of the early morning darkness. 7:30: Cross the river; loose rocks tip but I gain the other shore dry-footed. 7:45: Enter the canyon's shade, passing a burnt-out tree's "body without organs." 8:30: Leave the canyon, turning into a meadow's sunlight, past a black cairn of crumbling horseshit, and begin a long uphill climb, walking over Mountain bike treads , bare human feet, dog and coyote paw prints...embossed in dry sandy soil. 10:00: On a steep side trail, my water bottle gurgles: Every day is new epoch; and the back of one hand, mapped with watery blue veins, begins itching.

 

Matsuo Basho (1644-1694): Narrow Road to the Interior. S. Hamill, trans. Boston, 1991. "Mori Atsushi (1912-1992), novelist and literary essayist, published in 1988 a lyrical study of Matsuo Basho's masterpiece, Oku no hosomichi, entitled Ware mo mata,ku no hosomichi (And Me Too, Once Again, Into Oku no hosomichi)...Mori tells us, however, that he had had no special reationship with Basho or with the Oku no hosomichi...He allows, nevertheless, that...When at work, it may indeed seem like he, like Basho, was 'off on a journey.'" E. Kerkham, "And Us Too Enclosed in Mori Atsushi's Ware Mo Mata, Oku No Hosomichi." E. Kerkham, ed., Matsuo Basho's Poetic Spaces. New York, 2006.
body without organs: There are many commentaries on this concept made famous by G. Deleuze and F. Guattari in Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Here it refers to a body that no longer has an image of itself.