
a cry at dawn
owl’s lonely voice
lost in the night
reflections
in muddy water
brown study
reflections
without a goal
this mountain path
leads no where
aimless wanderer
each moment
unique and ephemeral
melting spring snow
bittersweet
this passage of time
a gift and a bane
© G.s.k. ‘15
Lest anyone think that I’m in a “brown study”, let me explain that I’m trying to write haiku in “free style” following the lead of today’s haiku master SantokaTaneda:

Santoka Taneda (1882-1940)
I went to look for some examples of his poetry found some HERE:
looking at the mountains
all day no need
to put on my kasa
good news
bad news
spring snow falls
no road but this one
spring snow falls
my heart is weary —
the mountains, the sea
are too beautiful
© Santoka Taneda
I find the idea of writing haiku free style interesting and might try this more often, but now let’s will seek out Santoka Taneda’s master, Ogiwara Seisensui:
Free-style haiku in this case is based on the teachings of another great haiku poet, Ogiwara Seisensui (1884-1976), who was a strong proponent of abandoning haiku traditions, especially the “season words” so favored by Takahama Kyoshi (1874-1959), and even the 5-7-5 syllable norms. In his Haiku teisho (1917) (a kind of Zen Sermon on Haiku), he broke with Hekigoto (1873-1937) and shocked the haiku world by advocating further that haiku be transformed into free verse. His students included Ozaki Hōsai (1885-1926) and Santōka Taneda (1882-1940), our featured haiku poet this month. His (Seisensui) role in promoting the format of free-style haiku has been compared with that of Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) for traditional verse, with the contrast that Seisensui was blessed with both vigorous health, and considerable wealth. He also was able to use new media to promote his style, including lectures and literary criticism on national radio.
Here are some examples of Ogiwara Seisensui’s haiku (closer to my own inclinations) which I found HERE:
たんぽぽたんぽぽ砂浜に春が目を開く
dandelion dandelion
on the sandy beach
spring opens its eyes
赤ん坊髪生えてうまれ来しぞ夜明け
The baby was born
with a head full of hair!
Dawn
空をあゆむ朗朗と月ひとり
I.
Walking the sky
a clear moon
all alone
II.
skywalking
clear moon
alone
© Ogiwara Seisensui
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