I Wish I'd Written This

Hokusai says

Hokusai says look carefully.

He says pay attention, notice.

He says keep looking, stay curious.

He says there is no end to seeing.

He says look forward to getting old.

He says keep changing,

you just get more who you really are.

He says get stuck, accept it, repeat

yourself as long as it is interesting.

He says keep doing what you love.

He says keep praying.

He says every one of us is a child,

every one of us is ancient

every one of us has a body.

He says every one of us is frightened.

He says every one of us has to find

a way to live with fear.

He says everything is alive —

shells, buildings, people, fish,

mountains, trees, wood is alive.

Water is alive.

Everything has its own life.

Everything lives inside us.

He says live with the world inside you.

He says it doesn't matter if you draw,

or write books. It doesn't matter

if you saw wood, or catch fish.

It doesn't matter if you sit at home

and stare at the ants on your veranda

or the shadows of the trees

and grasses in your garden.

It matters that you care.

It matters that you feel.

It matters that you notice.

It matters that life lives through you.

Contentment is life living through you.

Joy is life living through you.

Satisfaction and strength

is life living through you.

He says don't be afraid.

Don't be afraid.

Love, feel, let life take you by the hand.

Let life live through you.

— Roger S. Keyes


Though this poem has been widely circulated online, and you may well know it already, I can't find out much about its author, although he is described as "a renowned scholar". All I can ascertain is that he was recently based (and perhaps still is) at Brown University as a visiting scholar, his field is Japanese art and he has written some beautifully illustrated books on the subject. The latest, Ebon: The Artist and the Book in Japan, was published in 2006 by Washington University Press and is already a collector's item on Amazon.

It appears that Keyes has a particular interest in Hokusai (1760-1849) an ukiyo-e painter and woodblock printmaker of the Edo period in Japanese art. Hokusai is stil known for his "Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji", particularly The Great Wave Off Kanagawa, which of course you will recognise:

There are more examples of his work in the Wikipedia article.

Keyes's poem telling us what Hokusai says must, I think, refer to the messages he perceives in the paintings. But also the poem is often accompanied by the story that Hokusai, on his death bed at 89, said that if he had lived another five years, he would have been "a real painter". Perhaps Keyes had access to more of his words and was quoting or paraphrasing.

Whatever moved Keyes to interpret his favourite subject in verse, he has given us a beautiful philosophical reflection and affirmation of life, as well as a tribute to the artist he so appreciates. I love what the poem says, and the urgent conviction in which it is said, so that by the end it is exemplifying the attitude it describes.

Here is Hokusai's lovely Self-Portrait at the Age of Eighty-Three, which illustrates that joy in life. We can see that Keyes interprets him accurately!

Poems and photos used in ‘I Wish I’d Written This’ remain the property of the copyright holders (usually their authors).