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Lebanon poet pens 1,000 haikus in 1,000 days Writer Ken Beck shares the story he wrote which also ran in the Wilson Post for readers in his hometown of Lebanon, TN, in which he tells the story behind Robert Stone's 1,000 haiku, all of which have appeared on ColumbiaMagazine during the last three years. The story has been edited, with Mr. Stone's and Mr. Beck's permission, for ColumbiaMagazine.com Click on headline for story with photo(s) By Ken Beck, Lebanon, TN Lebanon poet pens 1,000 haikus in 1,000 days Friends call him the king of haiku - for a thousand reasons. On Monday, June 9, Lebanon's Robert H. Stone crossed the finish line of his own poetry marathon of composing 1,000 haikus in 1,000 days. (Haiku, for those of you who slept through sophomore English class, is a poem comprised of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables respectively.) "This particular project of a thousand came from sort of a random comment by my friend Chambers Stevens," said Stone, 74, who was valedictorian of the Lebanon High School class of 1957. On September 14, 2011, he wrote: "'It is a 1,000 days until I am 50 years old. Wonder what I could accomplish in a 1,000 days if I put my mind, body, and soul into it?'" "I copied under that 'and I could write you a haiku a day for a thousand days,' and I started writing them," recalled Stone. "I had to start somewhere, and it was not very impressive. Some days, things just pop in my mind and some days I struggle." His Day One haiku goes: On the very firstStone has been writing poetry since high school days and has completed some 3,000 haikus, 200 sonnets, and 24 villanelles and had hundreds of them on ColumbiaMagazine.com. He composes his poems on his home computer, writing most of his haiku late at night, and he receives much of his inspiration from other writers. "You have to have something to come up with," Stone confessed. "I saw a quote by E.E. Cummings, and I wrote 12 haikus all on the same reflection by Cummings." Day 158 To learn all the wrongs"After that I decided to write 26 haikus starting with the first letter in the alphabet and go A through Z. Then I ran across a Chinese book, Tao Te Ching, and wrote 81 haikus based on its 81 chapters. I decided to go through all of Shakespeare's sonnets, so I wrote 154 haikus on his sonnets." Day 445 A thing of beautyIn more recent days, he struck gold in quotations from Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea, furnishing him with fuel for 325 haikus. Day 976 Day by day by day"When I first started I casually made the comment and didn't think about what it meant. At first it took a little while to get into it, but then when I got along about in the 400s, I began to say 'this is a really big project,' and then when I got to 600-700, I said, 'this is a really, really big project.' And now I'm pretty close to the end. It seems sort of strange to quit," Stone said in late May. Day 902 Cowards do not wantAs for the recipient of Stone's literary binge, Chambers Stevens has created a tumblr of the poet's haikus 1000 Haiku where they may be read for free. He also placed Stone's first 500 haiku in an eBook on iTunes, available for 99 cents. Check out the introduction 1000 Days Haiku A native of Hendersonville, Tennessee, Stevens is a co-founder of the Nashville Shakespeare Festival, who now who lives in Los Angeles where he acts, writes plays, and holds workshops for young actors. A friend of Stone's since 1986, he says of the project, "You can imagine what I thought when he said he was going to write 1,000 haikus and post them each day. I never doubted for an instant that he would accomplish it. "I live in an artistic house. I'm an actor and a playwright. My wife is a movie producer. So the thought of having a poet post a poem each day interested me. Sometime I disagree with the haikus. Their theme or the lesson they teach.... "But my friends really enjoy them. They comment on them. They share them. Almost everyday someone asks me about the poet," Stevens said. "When the ibooks store was created, I decided it was time to turn the first 500 into a book. We will do the same for the next 500. And after that make it available for the Kindle. That is my gift to Robert. "I am proud of what he has accomplished, but after my birthday I can promise you I will not read another haiku until I am 60," said the playwright. And now, without further ado, is Stone's final haiku for Stevens' birthday: Day 1,000 People in our dreamsPoet Stone attended Cumberland University from 1957 to 1959 and gained a master's degree in mathematics at George Peabody College. He taught for several years at Cumberland in the 1960s before earning a degree in library science and then worked with the Kennedy Center in Nashville on the DARCEE Project, which pioneered Project Head Start. He also worked at the Meharry Medical College Library, Ingram Books, Tennessee State University, and a check printing company. Besides words, Stone's other love is playing the piano for churches. He made his debut at 14 during a revival at the old Goshen Cumberland Presbyterian Church (circa 1800) in the Taylorsville community. Today, he raps the keys for the Suggs Creek congregation, also founded in 1800, and notes, "I'm still playing for an old, old Cumberland Presbyterian Church." In the decades between, Stone has played at Bethlehem United Methodist Church and spent 24 years on the piano bench at the Episcopal Church of The Epiphany in Lebanon. "When I started with them I went to a workshop on how to use the Psalms in Sunday morning worship with responsive readings. We did it that first Sunday at church, and when I left there I had created more than 200 different versions of the Psalms for worship. Perhaps that foreshadowed my big haiku project," the man of notes and letters said. This story is by writer Ken Beck who also posted a similar version of it in the Wilson Post. Beck may be contacted at KBTAG@aol.COM This story was posted on 2014-06-22 16:10:04
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