Me, I have lived in many a place
Surrounded by my foe;
Nine stars I follow, leaving trace
Of everywhere I go.
Sometimes I take, sometimes I give,
Never without a fight;
For one shall die and one shall live
In shadows or in light.
9 Likes
Some Lunes on the Value of Long Games
The Obvious Move
The obvious move
Supports him
Who does not play it
But reads the move which
A kyu knows won’t work
Frequent Games
Frequent games entail
A movement
Towards but verdigree—
Reviewing care-wrought
Long-form games towards strength
6 Likes
(Shamelessly inspired by/plagiarised from ‘Spring Morning’ from the 'Pooh Collection - A.A.Milne)
Where am I going? I don’t know.
Down to the corners where sekis grow,
Up to tengen where all hopes flow,
Anywhere, anywhere. I don’t know.
Where am I going? Moves sail by,
Little ones, big ones, order awry.
Where am I going? My chances pass,
Little ones, big ones, that was the last.
7 Likes
From Go Alphabet on Sensei’s Library, by Andrew Grant.
A’s for Atari, one liberty left,
B is for Black Stones, of eyes all bereft;C is for China, where Go was invented,
D is for Dan players who drive you demented;E is for Eyes - go without if you dare,
F is for Fighting with tactical flair;G is for Grovelling in gote abjectly,
H is for Hamete - answered correctly;I’s Ikken-tobi - a move seldom wrong,
J’s for Joseki, both short ones and long;K is for Ko fights, a source of much strife,
L’s for the Liberties needed for life;M’s for the Meijin, a strong Japanese,
N’s for Nine stones, to put Black at his ease;O’s for Ogeima, the weakest of joints,
P’s for Ponnuki, that’s worth thirty points;Q is for Quickly, how lightning Go’s played,
R’s for Resigning, completely dismayed;S is for San-san, a corner quite small,
T’s for the Taisha, not easy at all;U’s Uttegaeshi (a snap-back to you),
V is for Victory by one point or two;W’s Watari, to cross underneath,
X marks the spot where your group came to grief;Y is for Yose, where wins slip away,
And Z’s Zoku-suji, which means “vulgar play”.
DIrty British 2 kyu with usual chop! hack!
Cutting through the keimas in the madcap ways,
With a carnage of dead groups,
Bad shape, false eyes,
Not to mention dangoes with each of his plays.
Terry Barker
BGJ #85 (Winter 1991)
1 Like
Parodying the last verse of Masefield’s “Cargoes”:
Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack
Butting through the Channel in the mad march days,
With a cargo of Tyne coal,
Road-rail, pig-lead,
Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.
Does that mean that there a parodies for the first two verses somewhere?
2 Likes
Nope, that was the only one.
The surrounding text runs
I believe there has been a major breakthrough in our knowledge of the history of go in Britain. Among the recently studied papers of an eminent poet was found the following rough draft: Dangoes – by J. Masefield. Perhaps history will have to be rewritten. On second thoughts, perhaps the poem should be.
1 Like
The AGA Song Book, this version first compiled in 1998 and containing many older songs from the USA and Britain.
1 Like
As in the other go centers Iwamoto established in Seattle, New York and Sao Paolo, the heart of the EGCC [European Go Cultural Centre] is the the tatami “Kunwa” room (the name Iwamoto used when he won the Honinbo title in 1946). The Centre has hosted the initial games of three major Japanese title matches, the 1992 and 2000 Meijin and the 1996 Kisei.
And just as in the tatami playing room in the Nihon Kiin in Tokyo, Kawabata’s scroll inscribed with the Japanese kanji for “Endlessly Deep” hangs on the wall. Unique to this Centre, however, is the haiku by the Centre’s first President, Jan Leyen, which reads
This oldest game
beginning with nothing
endless universe
AGA E-Journal, 14 March 2005
I don’t know what kanji is / are being referred to.
If the Tokyo room has the same text, then this discussion might help:Yugen no ma at Sensei's Library
1 Like
So many brilliant songs! 
1 Like
BGJ #126, 2002
1 Like
A denouncer kept shouting a name
An escaper he wanted to blame
“I don’t want to play’m,
I’d rather just flay’m;
tar and feathers are much too tame.”
I had a rank / But then I fell
I might be stronger / Who can tell?
I lost a game / that’s not so swell
But if I win / I then surmise
Who knows? My rank / may start to rise!
And rise and rise, until you see
I’m actually as strong as Lee!
Two of the rhymes of dsaun
1 Like
