Yutori - spaciousness
The poet Naomi Shihab Nye in talking to Krista Tibbett, host of On Being on July 28, 2016 talked of her introduction to the Japanese word yutori. Ms. Nye has the habit of writing on the board when teaching a class, “You are living in a poem.” After doing that for a class she was teaching in Japan:
“And a girl, in fact, wrote me a note in Yokohama on the day that I was leaving her school that has come to be the most significant note any student has written me in years. She said, “Well, here in Japan, we have a concept called ‘yutori.’” And it is spaciousness. It’s a kind of living with spaciousness. For example, it’s leaving early enough to get somewhere so that you know you’re going to arrive early, so when you get there, you have time to look around. Or — and then she gave all these different definitions of what yutori was to her.”
“But one of them was — and after you read a poem just knowing you can hold it, you can be in that space of the poem. And it can hold you in its space. And you don’t have to explain it. You don’t have to paraphrase it. You just hold it, and it allows you to see differently. And I just love that. I mean, I think that’s what I’ve been trying to say all these years.” (The word yutori has also been used to describe a change in Japanese education. “Yutori is a Japanese education policy which reduced the hours and the content of the curriculum in primary education – Wikipedia.com)
I am using the definition of spaciousness.
Yutori – spaciousness
Yutori is what is called the negative space
the space between the words
the space between the notes
the space outside the figure the artist paints or draws
the space which firmly but gently holds the sculpture
the warm amniotic space which holds the heart
the space which hold the memories
the memory of a loved one long past
the memory of falling asleep to the sounds
of being read to
the memory of that first ah ha moment
before someone tells you it is not safe
to open your arms wide.
Yutori is that space between the outstretched arms
of the child who knows love is this much.
Yutori is that space for the new poem, the new music,
the new novel, the new building, the new ….
That space yet to be filled in.
It is the hope
The Kirkegaardian leap of faith.
Yutori is where we find
the miracle
of peace.
Written July 30 2016
The poet Naomi Shihab Nye in talking to Krista Tibbett, host of On Being on July 28, 2016 talked of her introduction to the Japanese word yutori. Ms. Nye has the habit of writing on the board when teaching a class, “You are living in a poem.” After doing that for a class she was teaching in Japan:
“And a girl, in fact, wrote me a note in Yokohama on the day that I was leaving her school that has come to be the most significant note any student has written me in years. She said, “Well, here in Japan, we have a concept called ‘yutori.’” And it is spaciousness. It’s a kind of living with spaciousness. For example, it’s leaving early enough to get somewhere so that you know you’re going to arrive early, so when you get there, you have time to look around. Or — and then she gave all these different definitions of what yutori was to her.”
“But one of them was — and after you read a poem just knowing you can hold it, you can be in that space of the poem. And it can hold you in its space. And you don’t have to explain it. You don’t have to paraphrase it. You just hold it, and it allows you to see differently. And I just love that. I mean, I think that’s what I’ve been trying to say all these years.” (The word yutori has also been used to describe a change in Japanese education. “Yutori is a Japanese education policy which reduced the hours and the content of the curriculum in primary education – Wikipedia.com)
I am using the definition of spaciousness.
Yutori – spaciousness
Yutori is what is called the negative space
the space between the words
the space between the notes
the space outside the figure the artist paints or draws
the space which firmly but gently holds the sculpture
the warm amniotic space which holds the heart
the space which hold the memories
the memory of a loved one long past
the memory of falling asleep to the sounds
of being read to
the memory of that first ah ha moment
before someone tells you it is not safe
to open your arms wide.
Yutori is that space between the outstretched arms
of the child who knows love is this much.
Yutori is that space for the new poem, the new music,
the new novel, the new building, the new ….
That space yet to be filled in.
It is the hope
The Kirkegaardian leap of faith.
Yutori is where we find
the miracle
of peace.
Written July 30 2016
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