Chester Creek Ravine: Haiku

The early Japanese haiku masters were indefatigable walkers. Basho traveled 1,500 miles to produce a single slim volume, The Narrow Road to the Deep North. In a rootless 21st century society obsessed with mobility and speed, Bart Sutter decided to combine Bashos practice with Thoreaus sage advice to stay home. In writing Chester Creek Ravine, he says, I walked at least a thousand miles, but I did it by covering the same 2 mile loop through Chester Creek Ravine repeatedly, catching it right down the block. Occasionally during those neighborhood walks Sutter had fleeting moments when the inner and the outer worlds came together in a flash of intimate imagery.