Wednesday, June 27, 2007

VISIT

Keiko Yurugi and I visited Edith Shiffert last Friday (6/22) - I looked for H’s postcard but couldn’t find it. Who knows what happened to it? Edith forgets very easily! She told us her mother once said, “Could you be a reincarnation of Elizabeth Barret Browning?”
We sat by a picture window looking out at a rice paddy and low wooded mountains as the afternoon waned - amazing numbers of swallows came whizzing by, down and up!
Here are two poems by Keiko from that visit.
green brook         (on the roadside to the hospital)
running swiftly through grasses‐
   a grey heron waits    (goisagi)

halolike
her hair’s white silk strands
recalling her parents’ word
“Keep walking”           (encouraging)

And by me (Jane),
sugi stern and tall (cedars)
but flowering trees too
where the stream
passes her hospital

from stilly clearness
to white foam the river runs‐
her poems remain

Someone in my hometown of Grinnell, Iowa, searching (“googling”) for me found The Hotspot! Amazing. Thank you very much indeed for all your help with Hailstones web presence (blog is such an ugly word).
(Submitted by Jane Wieman)

Saturday, June 16, 2007

NOTICE BOARDお知らせ

If you wish to contact us about events, publications and other general matters, please do so through the COMMENTS key below this Board. We will reply to you also through the key. イベント、出版物、その他に関する一般連絡はこのコラム下のCOMMENTS キーにてお願いします。
******HAILSTONE PUBLICATIONS******
HAILSTONES (2001) a haiku chapbook ¥700 (sold out)
LOST HEIAN (2003) a Japan-in-Asia haiku gathering ¥800 (discount price for last copies)
ENHAIKLOPEDIA (2005) a haiku almanac, incl. haibun ¥1,000 (newly discounted)
******HAILSTONE EVENTS******
(RECENT PAST: for event reports, see archive postings)
Aug 03, 2006 Summer Evening on the Water, Kukai, Kyoto (JW/KY)
Aug 26, 2006 Renga Meeting in Shokado Garden, Yawata, Osaka (GS)
Oct 14, 2006 Hailstone's annual Autumn Haike, Yamabe-no-michi, Nara (SG)
Oct 15, 2006 Internat. Ginko-no-Renga (in assoc. with Roses Group, UK), Asuka, Nara (SG)
Nov 05, 2006 Mt. Ogura is Shedding Tears Part VIII, Saga, Kyoto (Lecture-Ginko, SG/ACE)
Dec 09, 2006 Ginko under Autumn Leaves, Tetsugaku-no-michi, Kyoto (MB/KY)
Jan 27, 2007 First Kukai of 2007 (Hatsu-kukai), Hamayashiki, Osaka (MK/RH)
Feb 18, 2007 Chinese New Year (poetry reading), Jane’s house, Kyoto (JW)
Apr 02, 2007 Hanami (Cherry-blossom viewing 1), Osawa Pond, Kyoto (SG)
Apr 14, 2007 Hanami (Ch-bl. viewing 2), Ninnaji Temple, Kyoto (SG)
May 20, 2007 Mt. Ogura Is Shedding Tears Part IX, Saga, Kyoto (SG/ACE).
June 16, 2007 Haigakai (Haiga Workshop, Lecturer Tsuchi-no-ko), Kyoto (SG)
June 22, 2007 Midsummer's Night Frog-Listening Tour, Saga, Kyoto (MB/SG)
(FORTHCOMING: for further details, please see separate postings; enquiries through the COMMENTS key, please.)
Rengakai at the Mumyō-an, Gichūji Temple, Zeze, Shiga on July 28.
With Basho translator, Prof. Nobuyuki Yuasa, we will visit Basho's grave (and that of Kiso Yoshinaka) and attempt a English hankasen renga in traditional style. Rendezvous: ticket barrier JR Zeze Station 10:50 or Gichuji by 11:15. Bring a lunch-box.
Hotspot Blogsite Workshop and Urban Ginko in Aug./Sep., N. Osaka?
Ideas for date/place, please! Shall we celebrate the noise, traffic, graffiti, heat and find our own haiku space in it? We also need a base equipped with at least one computer.
English Haiku Workshops - Hibikiai Forum at Friend Peace House just north of Nashinoki Shrine E. of the Gosho in C.Kyoto (2nd Mon. in Sep., 3rd Mons. Oct.-Dec. 18:15) and Senri Yomiuri Culture Center’s Eigo de Haiku in N.Osaka (4th Thur. 18:00 every month, except Dec. class, which will be on Nov. 29 instead).

Enquiries, through the COMMENTS key below! If you don't leave your email, we will reply through the COMMENTS key, too.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Allelopathy

Last autumn I found myself reading, quite out of school, about the secret lives of maples. The experience left me little ground for sentiment. It fairly shaded me out. The pigments that color autumn leaves are herbicidal. Come the fall, trees blanket the ground with toxins uncongenial to competitors for their little plots of real-estate. How like one another we all are. Tenacity & self-regard ignite the whole spectacle.

That maple tree is getting itself off again:
Ten thousand baby-hands clutch
At their own roots, their mossy grounds.

Well, so it is. Even the delicate hands of the Japanese maple have their role to play in holding down the native fort. Emily Dickinson (innocent of Darwin) builded better than she knew when she put pen to paper in the fall of 1862:

The name – of it – is “Autumn”–
The hue – of it – is Blood –
An Artery – upon the Hill –

A Vein – along the Road –

[N.B. Botanists have a name for the peculiar form of chemical warfare that trees engage in: "allelopathy," the "path," of course, leading to "pathogen." Here are links to 2 web-sites explaining the business:
1. Allelopathy. 2. Dye-Hard.]

Below, a Kyoto equation: leaves=money=leaves=money.
Even great temples make a living, come the fall.




Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Kazue Frog

Dear Hailstones,

There will be a frog-listening event here soon!