by AJ/Skald
"But neither a priest nor an ordinary man of this world was I, for I wavered ceaselessly like a bat that passes for a bird at one time and for a mouse at another."
--Basho
I like Basho's description of himself- as moving between two roles: that of the spiritual man (priest/monk/shaman) and that of the worldy man (poet/lover/teacher). This fits with my notion of what it means to be a "Skald" or "Hobopoet"... a travelling poet/shaman... moving in both the passionate and chaotic world of human beings and the meditative and natural world of the spirit. It is a notion of a particular kind of "middle way"... neither retreating from society nor being completely caught in it.
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