passing reflection
as the sun rises at dawn
a last adieu
© Gsk ’16
Morning Haiku and Waka – July 16, 2016
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Category Archives: Morning Haiku and Waka
Morning Haiku and Waka – July 13, 2016
an empty field
where once the willow stood
poppies dance
© Gsk ’16
Morning Haiku and Waka – Sunday – May 1, 2016
morning chill
raindrops fall on these flowers
awaiting May warmth
laying in bed
listening to the raindrops
warm under the sheets
drifting in and out of sleep
so hard to leave my dreams
those chiming bells
echoing in this loneliness
their hollow call
© G.s.k. ‘16
Morning Haiku and Waka – April 28, 2016
alone –
a swan swims into view
flowers blossom
§§§§
cold morning walk
north wind freezes the blossoms
snow dusts the mountains
§§§§§§
on this spring morning
looking at the snowy mount
and cherry blossoms
turning brittle on the trees
still – the birds huddle
no song fills the morning air
grey clouds hang heavy
and the northern winds whistle
ringing the wind chimes
making the trees bow low
and then for a moment –
a single ray of sunshine
escaped through the clouds
a single blackbird
began to sing his spring song
in the herb garden
a new sprout raises its head
there’s no denying
life’s warmth is a breath away
just waiting to be perceived.
§§§§
the stone wall
behind this screen holds up
my red clay tiled roof
and the nest of two sparrows
hear them twitter happily
© G.s.k. ‘16
Morning Haiku and Waka – Using Karumi (Haiga) – April 27, 2016
morning promenade
waddling off their breakfast
locals and tourists
© G.s.k. ‘16
Carpe Diem Tokubetsudesu #77 pickles (in the way of Basho) lost episode of March
Today Chèvrefeuille re-introduced the “karumi” writing technique. Here’s what he has to say about it:
“Bashô developed this concept during his final travels in 1693. Karumi is perhaps one of the most important and least understood principles of haiku poetry. Karumi can best be described as “lightness,” or a sensation of spontaneity. In many ways, karumi is a principle rooted in the “spirit” of haiku, rather than a specific technique. Bashô taught his students to think of karumi as “looking at the bottom of a shallow stream”. When karumi is incorporated into haiku, there is often a sense of light humour or child-like wonderment at the cycles of the natural world. Many haiku using karumi are not fixed on external rules, but rather an unhindered expression of the poet’s thoughts or emotions. This does not mean that the poet forgets good structure; just that the rules of structure are used in a natural manner. In my opinion, karumi is “beyond” technique and comes when a poet has learned to internalize and use the principles of the art interchangeably.
In a way it brought me another idea. Traditionally, and especially in Edo Japan, women did not have the male privilege of expanding their horizons, so their truth or spirituality was often found in the mundane. Women tend to validate daily life and recognize that miracles exist within the mundane, which is the core of haiku.There were females who did compose haiku, which were called “kitchen-haiku” by literati, but these “kitchen-haiku” had all the simplicity and lightness of karumi … In a way Basho taught males to write like females, with more elegance and beauty, based on the mundane (simple) life of that time.
Shiba Sonome, a female haiku poet, learned about karumi from Basho: “Learn about a pine tree from a pine tree, and about a bamboo plant from a bamboo plant.”
The poet should detach the mind from his own self. Nevertheless, some people interpret the word ‘learn’ in their own ways and never really ‘learn’. ‘Learn’ means to enter into the object, perceive its delicate life, and feel its feeling, whereupon a poem forms itself. Even a poem that lucidly describes an object could not attain a true poetic sentiment unless it contains the feelings that spontaneously emerged out of the object. In such a poem the object and the poet’s self would remain forever separate, for it was composed by the poet’s personal self.
Basho also said, “In my view a good poem is one in which the form of the verse, and the joining of its two parts, seem light as a shallow river flowing over its sandy bed”.
That, then, is karumi: becoming as one with the object of your poem … experiencing what it means to be that object … feeling the life of the object … allowing the poem to flow from that feeling and that experience.”
Reblog: Morning Haiku and Waka – NaPoWriMo – April 5, 2016
From Bastet’s Waka Library on Blogger …
And a tanka:
morning serenade
sweet perfume of mimosa
and thoughts of you
what more can be said of spring
then a warming I love you?
© G.s.k. ’16
Morning Haiku and Waka – March 25, 2016
haiku
a memory
forty-three years ago
blossoming prune trees
senryu
dawn
no beans and poker tummy
a child is born
tanka
God is gracious*
a blessing came to Earth
that spring morning
his laughter fills men’s hearts
his smile disperses darkness
© G.s.k. ‘16
haibun
I woke up that morning feeling out of sorts. My husband and I had come to bed rather around two o’clock having played poker with a few friends. It had been a really good evening for me, although around midnight, the bean soup I’d had at my father-in-laws house had started roiling in my tummy.
It would be just a few more days and I’d be admitted to hospital for the birth of our second child. He was very late in coming and so the doctor had decided that if he didn’t present himself spontaneously, they’d usher him into the world. Of course at the time I didn’t know that the child was a boy, back in 1973 one wasn’t privy to that information – the ultrasonography was still off in the future.
Here I was at 5:30 a.m. awoken from my dreams with terrible cramps and as I walked up and down the hall way, I swore off beans for the rest of my life. I’d tried not to wake my husband up but at 6:30, he came out of the bedroom rubbing his eyes.
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
“Damn beans are really playing havoc with my tummy!” I said as I doubled up with cramps.
“Oh my God!” he shouted “It’s the baby!”
I soon found myself pushed into the car – my bag was already in the boot as it had been for more than a month. I was no longer very conscious to the world. At 7:15 I was admitted to the hospital and prepped. The obstetrician came in around 7:45 for a check to see “where we’ve gotten to” and immediately call for a gurney which took me to the delivery room. My dearest Ian* came into the world at 8:10.
oh gift of God*
welcomed by the morning sun
in early spring
© G.s.k. ‘16
Today is my son Ian’s birthday. His is a Scottish name and means (depending on your dictionary of names): Gift from God or God is gracious. In my opinion, both are suited to him.
Morning Haiku and Waka – Basho’s Writing Techniques – March 6, 2016
swinging bridge
first one thinks of
meeting horses
© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)
“This haiku was written in autumn 1688 and is about a bridge in Kiso. The Kiso area was known for high quality horses raised there on August 15th it was the customary for the emperor to inspect his horses. All the horses from this district had to cross this bridge to go to Tokyo.
Due to his renga-writing skills. Basho was a master at making wild, wide leaps in the linking of the images in his poems. Today the haiku writing technique used by Basho is Leap Linkage. In this haiku the linkage leap is so wide that a footnote of explanation for readers four centuries and thousands of miles away to follow it is needed. This is one of the problems of making an innovative or wide leap – how to get the reader’s mind to track it over the abyss without getting lost. The important point in creating with this technique is that the writer is Always totally aware of his or her truth. This is rare in haiku, because in haiku the poet needs the reader. Usually, if the reader thinks about the words long enough and deeply enough, he can find the author’s truth, or better still, a new one.” (CDHK)
§§§§
This is my attempt for the leap linkage technique:
On New Year’s day I was invited by a friend to go on a walk. We climbed up a steep hill-side to a metal cross that over-looks the lower Sarca valley. Being completely out of shape the only thing that kept me walking was the spectacular photographs that I’d have been able to take. Unfortunately my camera’s batteries died after the third or fourth photo. I admit to being terribly disappointed. Later returning to her car at sunset I took a few photographs with my telephone. The above is one of them.
fenced in
a teasing purple sunset
New Year’s day
© G.s.k. ‘16
§§§§§§§§
(In Western haiku we learn that rhyme has no part of the form … which like many other rules of Western haiku has little to do with the reality of Japanese haiku. Let’s read what Chèvrefeuille tells you in this episode of CDHK dedicated to haiku writing techniques of Master Basho.)
nebu no ki no hagoshi mo itoe hoshi no kage
a silk tree
even through the leaves waery
of starlight
© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)
In the way of Basho
“Rhyme is a major component of Western poetry. In Japan most of the sound units (onji) are built on only five vowels, and rhyming occurs naturally. Yet, haiku translated into rhymed lines often need so much padding to make the rhyme work that the simplicity of the poem gets lost. However, if the reader takes the time to read the romaji version of the above haiku by Basho. one can see how often the old master employed the linkage of sound in his work. The rhyme, in the above haiku, occurs here with hagoshi(“through leaves”), hoshi (“star”), and the seven “oh” sounds.” (CDHK)
(So we must conclude that the problem is not writing rhyming haiku, but translating Japanese haiku which is often rhymed but untranslatable as a rhyming poem in western languages if we wish to keep the haiku poetic/aesthetic form.)
My attempt at haiku rhyme:
inside city walls
without stalls metal horses
line Padua’s malls
© G.s.k. ‘16
(As Chèvrefeuille would say, not very strong haiku today … perhaps I’ll try these techniques sometime again in the future 😉 )
Carpe Diem #931 Bridge and Carpe Diem #932 silk tree
Hello!
As many might have remarked, I’ve not been as assiduously writing as I usually do. This is not due to any lack of enthusiasm, but shoddy Internet. It takes forever for a single page to come up on my browser if there is a connection at all, which is becoming terribly frustrating. So this post will be in fact a response to two prompted themes bridge and silk tree from Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.
Morning Haiku and Waka – A Phoenix Arises – March 4, 2016
those vicious teeth
hidden behind happy smiles
and open doors
shuddering in armour
tend your bow for battle
and friends
walking in other valleys
remember you
how the days passed in silence
awaiting the dove’s coo
after the storm
even the clouds are silver
denying damage
what are a few fallen trees
what are crumbled houses
from the ashes
again the phoenix rises
in a pocket
ink flows from a stolen pen
upon hidden bits of paper
walk tall
no need for shame
life takes its toll
© G.s.k. ‘16
Recently our fellow writer and blogger and one of my dearest friends had a breakdown … she’s now beginning to arise from the ashes of this event and has shared with us the haiku and waka she wrote whilst in hospital.
It’s easy to hurt people in our virtual blogging world. Often we don’t even think of the people we connect with each day as real live flesh and blood people with their frailties, fears, hopes and tears. It’s too simple to lose sight of their reality. Sometimes narcissists reflect themselves in us, easy mirrors for them, preening themselves as mentors and admirers. Picking the scabs of wounds they know nothing about … because it makes them feel powerful. At other times people ingenuously bare their souls thinking they’re in a private safe world … when they’re under the eyes of absolutely everyone.
The world of Internet is actually just like the rest of the world with all its monsters and marvels. The only problem is, we sometimes don’t have our defences up not realizing that Internet is truly like being in a glass house world – we are vulnerable but think we’re safe because we’re sitting in a safe place and writing alone. We sometimes even think we’re just writing down our thoughts for ourselves. Then we push “publish” and potentially 7 billion people can walk through the meandering world that is our thoughts.
A while back my friend had a close encounter with a narcissist and like her, a few other women I’ve been in contact with through blog writing over the past couple of years, have been visited by him. She has had her problems being a survivor … he found an easy prey. He is not the reason she had a break-down but he was the person who first pushed her out of her balance, out of her wa or sense of harmony. I mention this only as a warning to others. We write, sometimes we bare our souls and so we are open to predators who look like admirers or mentors but who are only narcissists seeking to use us to reflect their personal vision of their would-be greatness.
Be safe – be cautious – be warned.
Bastet
Wind Bag – Basho’s Thoughts – March 2, 2016
spring storms
wind howling down the mountains
scattering blossoms
old man blustering
uproots creativity
withered blossoms
fragile blossoms
destroyed in the spring
by the northern wind
blowing force of nature
withers all it touches
© G.s.k. ‘16
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