In 2018, Cooper Young received the Alex Adam Award at Princeton University to travel through Japan and write poetry. He traced the path of Matsuo Bashō, the famous Japanese poet, who was renowned for his haiku and travel sketches. Following the tradition of the wandering poet, Cooper wrote about the people and places he encountered as he stopped at shrines, temples, rivers, and onsens, many of which were described in Bashō's famous book of haiku and prose (haibun), The Narrow Road to the Deep North.
Sacred Grounds is a sketch of modern Japan: the people, culture, religion, and history. It explores the many ways the journey has changed since Bashō's time, and the ways in which it has stayed the same. The reader is invited to participate in the natural beauty of the landscapes and the moments of enlightenment available in everyday life.
