the Weight of White: Poems on Zen and Art Karate

Zen and the Art of Karate is a poetry collection that lives at the intersection of two ancient disciplines - martial arts and the written word. It is structured in three acts. Mu - emptiness, the beginning, the quiet before knowing. Shobu - the bout, the victories, the philosophy of the fighter. Tobitatsu - the leap, the reckoning, the hope that remains after everything. Together they form a single arc, from a boy who walked through a dojo door for the first time, to the person still becoming on the other side of every fight. At the heart of this book is Zen. The empty mind. The perfect moment. The understanding that stillness is not absence but precision, that waiting, done correctly, is its own form of action. Japanese philosophy, mythology and folklore run through every poem - Mushin, Ma, Zanshin, Bushido, Wabi-Sabi - not as explanation but as lived experience. This is penned by 15 year old poet Devansh Bose, who is a black belt in karate and writing since before he could fight, and fighting since before he could write. This book occupies both the spaces.You do not need to know karate to read it. You only need to know what it feels like to want something completely- and to keep showing up for it, long after the easier version of yourself would have stopped.