Mukti

Mukti

Mukti by Jason Blasso

C H A RY B D I S P R E S S new york

Published by Charybdis Press New York Copyright © Charybdis Press 2014 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 15 14 13 12

4321

First Printing No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the publisher, except in the context of reviews.

ISBN This book is set in Rockwell, Century Gothic and Whitman, designed by Ken Lew. All drawings made with pen and ink on the pages of a hardcover Muji book.

Text and layout completed with InDesign.

Artwork and poetry by Jason Blasso Book edited and designed by the same www.charybdispress.com

for my girls

Mukti

Mukti struggles

herself free

For Mukti’s seen

the Circle’s form

Broken

away

Mukti starts to flee

From the endless cycles of its violent Storm

Mukti knows

her road is long

As long as Mukti follows

her inner track

When no longer

distracted

by the Circle’s song

She stays her course

never turning back

Mukti

dives inside her deepest deep

Beyond where silence and solitude

are the only choice

To the place where her Song has long lain asleep

And with a mighty roar lets loose her Voice

Mukti

looks up

to the sun-eclipsed skies

Then quickly ascends to her highest height

Until she stands over and above where the Storm cloud flies

And banishes its darkness

with her light

Mukti stands alone her past destroyed

But her future freedom

still

death of the gates lies

beyond

So she fearlessly steps into the void

And breaks through the Circle on her final breath

breath

MUKTI Mukti struggles herself free For Mukti’s seen the Circle’s form Broken away Mukti starts to flee From the endless cycles of its violent Storm Mukti knows her road is long As long as Mukti follows her inner track But when no longer distracted by the Circle’s Song She stays her course never turning back Mukti dives inside her deepest deep Beyond where silence and solitude are the only choice To the place where her Song has long lain asleep And with a mighty roar lets loose her Voice Mukti looks up to the sun-eclipsed skies Then quickly ascends to her highest height Until she stands over and above where the Storm cloud flies And banishes its darkness with her light Mukti stands alone her past destroyed But her future freedom still lies beyond the gates of death So she fearlessly steps into the void And breaks through the Circle on her final breath

While traveling to Chicago for a press brake training class several years ago, I picked this book up at the Muji store in New York’s JFK airport. Being away from my canvas and paint, I thought it would be good to have a surrogate during my journey and decided to exercise different ink techniques.

The pictures were worked up at night after class. When completed, I flipped through the book and the name Mukti came to mind and stuck. Looking back now, it was probably a corruption of the store name. With it, I started to title each picture. The first was: Mukti was born twin to the sun.

As the titles grew, I shaped them into rhymes but the word and picture images never quite came together. I shelved the book and over the years would pick it up at odd intervals to see if I could tease a larger meaning out of it. Each time I did this, I made some progress but nothing that satisfied.

Recently, when I returned to it, I decided to look up the word Mukti to see if I could find some guidance and learned that it comes from the Sanskrit moksha, meaning liberation. With this in mind, Mukti now followed a path of emancipation from the storm of nihilism and the endless circle of hell and habit.

Jason Blasso

www.charybdispress.com

www.charybdispress.com