Hailstone Haiku Circle 'Hotspot'

Hotspot cools off; Icebox heats up?

2008-03-24T18:06:00.004+09:00

EASTER SUNDAY 2008

The HOTSPOT now becomes an archive! The ICEBOX is launched! Hailstone Haiku Circle's creativity officially moves to the new more versatile site henceforth. Fresh inspiration and news await you there! Anyone can leave a comment against a particular post or submit a haiku or two on the new Submissions page. If the link in this post has disappeared or doesn't work, try the one in the first comment. If that doesn't work, have a look at the links on the right or just type in 'Hailstone Icebox' into an internet search. You'll find us.

Titleless

2008-03-19T11:06:00.002+09:00

After all that talk

Of divorcing her husband

(Which we encouraged) -

Now he has granted her wish,

She becomes suicidal.

(Kamome)

With love from a seabird ...

2008-03-01T09:59:00.000+09:00

Waking from short sleep:

Patchouli and rosewater

Scent the atmosphere -

Books on healing surround me,

Her name on every cover.

Kamome

Hatsu Ginko in Gion

2008-02-15T12:26:00.007+09:00

Cold, sunny. Snowflakes and ice pellets blow into town from the north. Peter, our host, (left, in kimono) leads us on a stroll through his home patch of Miyagawa-cho. Maikos pass. New Year decorations, still displayed. We pray for the prosperity of Hailstone at the Ebisu Shrine. Mari and Mayumi, also in kimono; Tito, in Korean dress. Our guests from Ireland, Sean (extreme right) and Junko, take in the little alleys of wooden eaves, the dainty willows, many still bearing last year's leaves. We know that in a couple of months they'll be replaced by the viridian leaflets that every year herald Kyoto's cherry-time.

Young men pounding rice
'Call an ambulance'
They joke (Moya)

Our glee
each time a maiko passes -
scattering snow (Mari)

Longing hot sake
While maiko stroll by ...
Kites overhead (Peter)

Viewing flying gulls
From a boat-ceilinged room -
A gift of yore (Mayumi)

One hailstone
Melts into
My jotted poem ...
Soon, equally gone. (Tito)

NOTICE BOARD　お知らせ(Feb. 16, Revd)

2007-12-29T17:40:00.001+09:00

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。日本語でも結構です。
******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 topic anthology, incl. haibun ￥1,000 (discount price)
The MOON and INSECTS (2007) a haiku chapbook ￥500 (edited by JW)
SEASONS OF THE GODS 神々の四季 (2007) ￥1,000 almanac (incl. haibun and illust., just released!)
******HAILSTONE EVENTS******
(RECENT PAST: for event reports, see archive postings)
Sep 13, 2007 Urban Ginko in Tenroku, N. Osaka (KG/HM)
Nov 17/18, 2007 Hailstone Autumn Haike in the Tango Peninsular, Kyoto Pref. (RD)
Nov 25, 2007 Mt. Ogura Is Shedding Tears pt. 10. (Ritsumeikan Univ. Volunteer Centre)
Dec 1, 2007 Takaragaike Ginko & Renku Study Meet (JD)
Dec 20, 2007 Seasons of the Gods Book Launch, by Nomi Jinja, Takatsuki, Osaka (AM)
Jan 13 , 2008 Hatsu Ginko-Rodokukai in Gion, Kyoto (PM)
(FORTHCOMING: for further details, please see separate postings; enquiries through the COMMENTS key, please.)
Haiku sketch walk: Friday, March 7th; 11:00-3pm (in the event of rain, bring rain gear)　
1st rendezvous spot-Eiden Demachiniyagi train station at 10:30am (connected to Keihan Demachiniyagi station in northeast Kyoto)
2nd rendezvous spot-Eiden Ichijoji train station 10:50am (northeast Kyoto)
(If you'd like to join us at any point during the haiku sketch walk let us know.)
Let's tap into our inner senses with a 'haiku sketch walk'. Don't worry, you need not be an artist, or be able to draw well. Just come out for a short walk, allow nature to help you reflect a bit, and sketch whatever impresses you.
We will visit two temple gardens. Forty-five minutes to one hour will be spent at each temple to walk around, reflect, and sketch whatever impresses you. Afterwards, we will have a late lunch around 1:30pm at a nearby soba restaurant. At the restaurant we will share our sketches and try to add complimentary haiku (yours or somebody else's). Bring a small sketch pad or book and a few pencils or your favorite ink pens. Bring temple entance fees: ￥500 for each temple (total:￥1,000) & Bring money for soba if you'd like to eat at the restaurant.
rare snow dayー
old-style haberdashery
on the snowmen //gerald/ (enquiries: Gerald Staggers)
English Haiku Workshops - Hibikiai Forum Spring semester at Friend Peace House just north of Nashinoki Shrine E. of the Gosho in C.Kyoto (2nd Thurs. Apr.-Jun. 18:15) and Senri Yomiuri Culture Center’s Eigo de Haiku in N.Osaka (4th Thurs. Jan.-Dec. 18:00, enquiries: Nitta 06-6833-5031). Lecturer: Stephen Gill.
******Miscellaneous******
Correction- in the anthology, “SEASONS OF THE GODS”, Poem 1/p. 6; the translated Japanese should be written and read as 新年のうるはしき夜明けの使者なるや/天馬空駆く蹄の音す(shin-nen no/uruwashiki yoake no/shisha naru ya/tenba kuu kaku/hizume no oto su).
************
Enquiries, also possible through the COMMENTS key below! If you don't leave your email, we will reply through the COMMENTS key, too.

Seasons of the Gods

2007-12-21T11:58:00.000+09:00

Hailstone Haiku Circle's latest collection is now out: Seasons of the Gods. ￥1,000, ￥210 (postage stamps to add for despatch in Japan), 98 haiku poems, 96 pages, 84 poem commentaries, 40 contributors, US$ 12 (airmail postage paid), 8 b/w illustrations, 5 sections (New Year, Spring delivers, Summer fulfills, Autumn detaches, Winter distills), 4 haibun, 2 linked verses, 1 fold-out cover by Richard Steiner, 1 afterword (Haiku, Shinto & Japan's Natural World) by Toji Kamata, and a partridge in a pear tree! Just in time for Christmas. Place your orders with Mari Kawaguchi. Discount package available for contributors. Outside enquiries via the comments button below. Please leave your email address for reply.

The Book Launch Party, held on 20 Dec. beside Nomi Jinja in Takatsuki, was attended by eighteen poets, amongst whom we were especially pleased to see Judy Dale, who had just flown in for a few days from Canada (leaning on the table).

Maiko evening fragment

2007-12-18T23:50:00.001+09:00

The turquoise kimono
Madame chose for you today:
In my butterfly dream
It holds you tight.

(Tito, for Gion no Ichiwaka, 15.12.07)

URGENT

2007-12-13T14:37:00.000+09:00

Please see the third post below (Notice Board, edited) for BOOK LAUNCH on 20 DEC. 18:00-20:30.
HAILSTONE HAIKU CIRCLE 4th ANTHOLOGY ‘SEASONS OF THE GODS’ （神々の四季）BOOK LAUNCH at Kinshokaku Restaurant 錦松鶴 (072-671-5191) , Takatsuki.

Posting Difficulties

2007-12-12T13:08:00.000+09:00

As he found that our site wouldn't allow him to do it himself, Kamome requested the following tanka posted. Our webmaster, David, hopes to make changes to the Hotspot early next year to make it easier for those of you who joined as contributors using the old system to post using a new one. We all wait with bated breath! If you are having difficulties with signing in to post or comment, please accept the editors' apologies for this temporary difficulty. A few of us, however, still seem able to post and comment, so do continue to visit every now and then to see what's new ...

Wishing open-eyed

About living together,

We talk on the phone -

Afterwards, the moon shines down

Into my empty kitchen.

(Kamome)

Amanohashidate and Kinosaki Haike

2007-12-03T12:59:00.000+09:00

At 9:00 a.m. on Saturday 17 November, Tito and I met at JR Sagano-Arashiyama station and began the annual Hailstone Autumn Haike. Our numbers were low but our spirits high. This was my very first foray into northern Kyoto Prefecture; and I had wanted to visit Kinosaki in Hyogo Prefecture ever since I read Shiga Naoya's short story 「城崎にて」 (Kinosaki nite) about a decade ago.

Tito kindly took the driving duties on himself, so apart from ineffectually fumbling with a map from time to time, I was able to fully enjoy the transition from city to countryside, flat lands to hills, and finally inland to coast. Waiting for us at the end of two-and-a-half hours' drive at Chionji temple in Amanohashidate were John Dougill and Mari Kawaguchi. After picking up a little sustenance at the local shops (thanks Mari for your extra homemade sandwich!), we crossed the bridge linking the sandbar with the coast, and soon found ourselves on a beautiful fine-sand, sun-drenched beach, the perfect spot for a picnic lunch.

Next we strolled up the centre of the sandbar, flanked on both sides by pine trees, with frequent glimpses of the sandy shore on each side. While we were viewing a shrine positioned to worship a miraculous fresh-water spring (which sadly was not in a miraculous state), a young local shrine enthusiast turned up on his collapsible bicycle, and in no time had agreed to accompany us on our travels for the day. We next took to the shoreline, and, with John taking the lead, some of us were soon walking barefoot in the surf, dodging the occasional large and purple beached jellyfish.

Barefoot
On this bridge to heaven
The gods and I ...
-- John Dougill

Another fateful meeting was with the 宮司 (guuji, or shrine priest) of the Kono shrine, clad in resplendent hakama. We came across him shortly after saying good bye to John at the shrine and making our tour of the impressive 岩座 (iwakura, holy rocks) there. Tito and the priest found they had much to talk about regarding the origins of some of the most important Shinto deities and the noble clan of Amabe to which the priest belonged (at least, by marriage -- his wife, in black in the middle of the picture, has the actual bloodline).

Next we eschewed the funicular and climbed to the peak of Kasamatsu for the obligatory (but no less impressive for that) upside-down viewing of the Bridge of Heaven as the sun began to sink towards the horizon. We ended our day together with a boat trip back across the bay.

towards pine-trees
crossing over the turning bridge
... scent of the sea
-- Mari Kawaguchi

Then Tito and I drove on to Kinosaki. Our hostesses at the ryokan Ashigaru were eager for us to enjoy our crab meal in as timely a fashion as we could. In fact, they did everything short of stuff the legs into our maws! As there were only two of us, they had stuffed us into a tiny windowless room in the dining area, and a similarly sized space in our bedroom. At least we had the privilege of an escape rope hanging next to the window!

We were able to catch the last shuttle bus into the town centre and undertook a three-spa 外湯めぐり, clattering along the streets in our geta and yukata. Then it was a taxi-ride back to the ryokan for some late-night beer and haiku-reading.

Breakfast was in similarly cramped conditions, but the morning view from the waiting room and the rotemburo was impressive.

the inn waiting room
lightning on the peaks:
"another five minutes"
-- Richard Donovan

The weather on the second day, however, was less so. Eventually, tired of waiting for it to settle down, we drove down to the base of Daishizan and began our hiked ascent past Onsendera. After a coffee break at the cable-car centre at the top, we braved increasingly foul weather and headed up to Momijidaira. We were greeted there by ochre leaves and showers of propritious hailstones from the clouds rolling about our ears. After a brief stop, where we waited in vain for a break in the weather, we set off back down the trail, a newborn stream nipping at our heels.

In the black clouds above
A god must have broken
His rosary of hailstone beads.
-- Tito

The footbath at the base of Daishizan was a welcome way to end our hike.

NOTICE BOARD　お知らせ

2007-11-04T13:33:00.000+09:00

Two New Tanka

2007-10-29T12:41:00.000+09:00

Having posting problems with our google-ized website, Kamome has sent these two tanka to be posted on his behalf. Both were 'Made in England' recently. Please take a moment to leave him a comment (click the comments button below this post!).

Psychotic grateful

After much unburdening -

'God will reward you'.

On the way back home I stoop

To pick up a two-pound coin.

Abandoned kitten

Clings desperately to my jeans:

'Please look after me!' -

If only I had done so,

We would both have had a home.

(Kamome)

At Mikami Shrine

2007-10-27T18:43:00.000+09:00

Here are some things that limited space and passed deadline prevented from being considered for inclusion in the forthcoming Hailstone book due in December. Not to worry: we have this blog to fool around with. What didn't get into the book, can be eaten up right here.
This spat of poems was composed in the shadow of Mikami Jinja, out Yasu way in Shiga Pref. A very old shrine, it is the leading god of the area and a very busy place all year round. The haiku are seasonal, but were all written at nearly the same time, not in the seasons they celebrate.
Munch away:

can’t fall for fall ‘cause
winter’s nearing;
yet, these sunsets do make sense

sunset over the shrine
viewed beneath the torii:
too much, too much

a red torii
up thru this deep snow
warms me on a black-white day

shrine green, shrine crimson,
shrine breeze, shrine banners,
welcome me to shrine spring

shimmering shrine in August’s heat,
red torii burning my eyes

beside the torii, beside its pond,
beside my girl, beside myself

the black troops flying home,
rest on the torii, watch,
with me, our sunset

"Black troops" refers to the countless crows on the east side of Lake Biwa. Beyond numbering.

A new, beautiful, hand-made haiku chapbook "The Moon and Insects"

2007-10-03T15:30:00.000+09:00

A new, beautiful, hand-made haiku chapbook, “The Moon and Insects”, compiled and edited in 2007 spring by Jane Wieman is now available. Twenty nine (involving those in covers) nice poems by sixteen poets are collected by her.

old leaves
enlaced in older cobwebs
glow
in winter sun
500 yen per copy + postal fee. Through the COMMENT key, please.

Urban Ginko to Tenroku, N. Osaka

2007-10-02T17:33:00.000+09:00

Eleven hailstones gathered at Tenjinbashi-suji street 3-cho-me (Tensan) in the late morning on September 13 and the lingering summer heat (35 degrees C on the day) first struck them.

hot morning commute
assailed by a waft of trash,
Thursday (Moya)

The street is the old approach to Osaka Temma-gu Shrine, dedicated to Sugawara-no-Michizane (845-903), a great scholar, venerated as a God of Study later. Hailstone, a group of persons maybe loving study, naturally was going to visit it and just in front of its gate, there was “Hanjo-Tei”…

Outside the rakugo theatre
Surrounded by plastic daisies –
Gerald fools. (Tito)

windless summer day
at Tenmangu Shrine –
scent of centuries past (Kaoru)

After prayer, and then lunch at Tensan again, they went ahead toward Tenjinbashi-suji 6-cho-me (Tenroku) through the crowded street of new and old stores selling anything and everything, also new and old.

September sun strikes
His ‘50s clock at 2 –
The bicycle repairman. (Tito)

afternoon market –
memories, shadows
and roasted barley flour (Mizuho)

In the bustling arcade
a training monk with his bowl –
late summer heat (Akito)

When Hailstone arrived at Tenroku, they found themselves completely melted. However, what high-spirited persons they were to further study the old houses and shops exhibited in the Museum of Housing and Living!
Breakup at 17:00.
-----
Participants: Akito M., Gerald S., Hisashi M., Kazuko T., Moya B., Mari K., Mizuho S., Reiko H., Stephen G. (T), Shun S., Kaoru G.

awe, pair

2007-09-16T18:11:00.000+09:00

These arrived earlier this month, quite unannounced and unexpected, while killing some minutes on a delayed train. As is often usual with my "things," I myself don't fully understand them at the time, only hoping someone at a sensible distance in time, at least, will see and interupt the meaning, if any. On the surface, simple enuf; but poetry isn't poetry if there isn't something else lurking about.
They are in the four line style so favored by Stephen the Gill. I want to add here that this style was roundly denounced in my face by haiku-ists in America last summer. Defending our Henry as best I could, it was nevertheless wasted effort. Boiling oil (we were having tempura in the garden) was brought to a higher heat, when I wisely relented my defense and saved my soul, perhaps, by agreeing with the opposition that possibly, given the times we are living thru and the rebellious nature of poetry in general, (yes, quite tasty, and hot enough), it could be kindly allowed to forgive them that straddle the rules for convenience sake while (oh, thank you, just a bit more, please), re-writing some, ignoring others, yes, of course, at their peril, I agree, yup, naturally the violaters will descend into the special hell reserved for the impurests mockers of The Right Way to Write Haiku, (exeellent, best ever tasted), oh, your signed book?, yes, of course, and thank you so much, will read it on the plane,...

Onward to the things:

take blind road
to guessburg, meet
queen May; pay, play,
then pray to disappear.

natal event in spring,
which spring is
all about anyway;
welcome Ai

Snails

2007-09-01T11:11:00.000+09:00

Altering his route

So as not to crush snails:

The Buddhist convert.

(Kamome)

NOTICE BOARDお知らせ

2007-08-24T15:39:00.000+09:00

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)
The MOON and INSECTS (2007) a haiku chapbook ￥500 (newly issued by JW)
******HAILSTONE EVENTS******
(RECENT PAST: for event reports, see archive postings)
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)
July 28, 2007 Renku-kai at Mumyō-an, Gichūji Temple, Zeze (SG/MK/KY)
Sep 13, 2007 Urban Ginko in Tenroku, N. Osaka (KG/HM)
(FORTHCOMING: for further details, please see separate postings; enquiries through the COMMENTS key, please.)
Sat. Nov 17/Sun. Nov 18 Hailstone Autumn Haike (Haiku Hike) in the Tango Peninsular. Rendezvous: 11:40 Monjudou in Chionji Temple, Hashidate. Train/car choice (see 'O, the Snail!' # 23). Sat. - hike across Amanohashidate sand bar to Kono Shrine, climb Kasamatsu Peak, (climb Kouyama in Kumihama), sotoyu-meguri in Kinosaki Onsen. Sun. - climb Mt. Daishi, hike to Momijidaira, Kinosaki Bungeikan, (hike/boat to Genbudou Caves). Arrive back in Kyoto/Osaka on Sun. even. Takes place if rain. Organizer: Richard Donovan.
Sun. Nov. 25 Mt. Ogura Is Shedding Tears pt. 10. This time, organized by students from the Ritsumeikan Univ. Volunteer Centre! Rendezvous: 10:00 JR Saga Arashiyama Station. Games, rubbish-clearing (gloves/bags provided), tree-planting, and poetry composition - all in one of Kyoto's most beautiful areas! Disperse: 16:00. Total to walk: 4-5 km. Bring weather-proof clothing and tough shoes. Takes place if rain.
Sat. Dec 1 Takaragaike Ginko & Renku Study Meet. Rendezvous: 13:00 Kokusai Kaikan Subway Station. The composition stroll will take us up and over the little hill of Myouhou 妙法 and we will share poems and discuss this summer's renku, 'The First Resting Place' in the Speakeasy Cafe at Shugakuin. Disperse: 17:00. Organizer: John Dougill. Takes place if rain.
English Haiku Workshops - Hibikiai Forum at Friend Peace House just north of Nashinoki Shrine E. of the Gosho in C.Kyoto (3rd Mons. Oct.-Dec. 18:15) and Senri Yomiuri Culture Center’s Eigo de Haiku in N.Osaka (Nov. 22 and 29). Lecturer: Stephen Gill.
Enquiries, through the COMMENTS key below! If you don't leave your email, we will reply through the COMMENTS key, too.

Mumyo-an Renkukai

2007-08-13T21:30:00.000+09:00

Fifteen poets assembled at the Nameless Hut within the grounds of Gichuji Temple in Zeze, Shiga Pref. on the last Saturday in July - a hot, sunny day. The meeting - an attempt to compose a han-kasen (18-stanza linked-verse) and dedicate it to the master haijin, Matsuo Basho, whose grave is at the temple - was lead by Nobuyuki Yuasa. He had invited Eiko Yachimoto of the Association of International Renku to assist him in the process of selection and translation into Japanese. This was a bilingual effort. The hokku itself was by Basho (まず頼む椎の木もあり夏木立）; thereafter, 10 verses (by 9 different poets) were compiled before we broke up to visit the nearby Tatsugaoka Haijin Cemetery. The renku is at present being completed using email. Periodically, Nobuyuki sends out a call for candidates for the next stanza, then selects from what he gets. Once finished, the original English version will be put up on the Hotspot for you to evaluate. We should remember that Basho was first and foremost a renga master. While being an act of homage to him, all participants will probably agree that it was a valuable insight into the production of the type of multi-seasonal imagined verse that was so popular in Basho's day. Our thanks to Nobuyuki and Eiko for their hard work.

Painting Frogs and Trying to Listen to Them

2007-07-05T17:09:00.000+09:00

The general consensus was that Gerald's deftly-painted rows of little black frogs were best. Teacher, Tsuchi-no-ko-sensei, seemed to agree. Hailstone participants learnt something of the history and conceptual background of haiga (haiku-style painting) in a specially-arranged Nijo workshop on 16 June. Then they watched the teacher paint - not only frogs, but goldfish, dragonflies, swallows and globefish, too. Finally, they were given blank washi cards on which to make their own attempts at haiga. Some haiku in English were added later. Object: production of a few shochumimai greetings cards for friends.

rain ...
above its incessant drone
frog voices rise
(Jane Wieman)

Less than a week later, on Midsummer's Night, another small crowd of poets gathered to listen to different varieties of frog singing. Four habitats were visited - a mountain stream (for its kajika), a mountain forest (for moriaogaeru), a swamp (ushigaeru) and the paddyfields of Saga (various). The rain let up only an hour or so before we met, so there was a nice mist at Kiyotaki, but little audible frogsong: we imagined the frogs were too busy clinging on for dear life to the boulders and trees on either side of the raging torrent. The fireflies were magical, though. Later, we saw the silhouette of a wild boar charging along the tiny paths between paddies ... Kazue was so close to it, she could feel the breeze! Frogs are the voice of the rainy season, but when a crowd appears they certainly know how to clam up.

Creeping towards us
Through the single-lane tunnel
Mist
From the other side.
(Tito)

Frogs call!

floor upon floor mirrored

in the city ricefield

(Moya Bligh)

a bullfrog ceases to sing ...
just the sound of its limbs
slipping back into
the night marsh.
(Keiko Yurugi)

VISIT

2007-06-27T18:05:00.001+09:00

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)

NOTICE BOARDお知らせ

2007-06-16T18:22:00.000+09:00

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.

Allelopathy

2007-06-10T15:32:00.000+09:00

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.

Kazue Frog

2007-06-05T22:34:00.000+09:00

Dear Hailstones,

There will be a frog-listening event here soon!

American "Memorial Day": May 2007

2007-05-30T18:34:00.000+09:00

On Memorial Day, I sat on a veranda, above Oike Street, to take my pint of ale in the dusk, reading about American politics. The center doesn't hold there anymore, as an Irish poet once put it when the center didn’t hold where he was. “The best lack all conviction,” he said, “the worst are full of passionate intensity.” Only it is Babylon my countrymen are slouching towards & away from now, Mr. Yeats, not Bethlehem. We will see what new fear that brings on. “Patria mia,” is it really, Ezra Pound? “My country”? You were in London when you penned that title in Italian for an expat essay, exporting to Chicago bits of poetry cribbed from China by other hands than yours in Japan when you were just a whelp in "free-silverite" Idaho. “My country”: Well, yes and no, as we Americans say.

The ale goes down too well,
Better, even, than the dusk of May:
Another year gone slack, a loosening of the belt.

Then the friend I was waiting for arrived, and it was off with us up Kiyamachi, forty-odd meters: three glasses of house red & some good talk.

Oike-dori,
by night.

The Way of Providence is a Little Rude

2007-05-22T17:10:00.000+09:00

We stumbled up and down Mount Ogura in May, talking of nematodes, Japanese beetles, nonsense lyrics, and British Beatles. Vitality, and the nothing that lies behind it, will see to its nematodes, and they to their sawyer beetles, ten thousand to the belly, until even the pines go red in the face, and perish. Emerson is cold comfort here. “The way of Providence is a little rude,” he says. “The snap of the tiger and other bloody leapers and jumpers, the crackle of the bones of his prey in the coil of the anaconda;––these are in the system, and our habits are like theirs.” “Expensive races,” he concludes, meaning “species”: “race living at the expense of race.”

One among our congress spoke very well for the pines of Ogura. And we all spoke up for the mountain proper. The general consensus? Let the nematodes speak for themselves. It is easy enough to dislike their way of making a living, easy enough to discount their point of view.

The pines run a fever,
Bearing the unasked-for burden
Of being alive on Mount Ogura.
That is, until they bear
The unasked-for burden
Of being dead on Mount Ogura.

We kept our eyes to the ground, for the most part: cigarette butts, shards of bottles put to bad use. But we reached the height of our reclamation in two motor-bikes, one refrigerator, a burnt-out stove, a Mahjong set, and all manner of small tatters. (We left one bicycle behind, for footing.) Then someone said aloud what everyone was thinking: How could a city ignore a thing so big as a mountain? Well, how could it not, given what cities harbor? “Expensive races”: the root of the matter.

Grubbing my way up the slope of Ogura
(Every grubbing man of us leaves his stain),
I heard a festival down the gorge below.
But for what occasion? Spring, was it?

Anyway, having met an old stone conduit to gods long dead, and having knelt with a sleeping tiger, we hauled up the rubbish of another year’s making, layer upon layer: a papier mache mockery of a mountainside. We shot up the scene with our cameras and left the wake of it for the city to cart away in a two-ton truck. Then, having had our fill of the land, we took the low road home. “Kampai,” fellow travelers. “Here's to the nothing that is everything.”

Next May,
When you lope down Ogura
To see that sleeping tiger of a stone,
Don’t fall for him any harder than you must.

From Ogura, toward the gorge.
Click on the photo for a larger image.
N.B. My apologies for liberties
herein taken as to verse.

FROM JANE

2007-05-22T16:51:00.000+09:00

Please send greetings and well-wishes, a poem or two to Edith Shiffert (poet, translator, long time Kyoto resident). Now 91, she has been hospitalized following a broken leg and would welcome correspondence (or visitors) in English.
Edith Shiffert
A-211, Ohara Kinen Byoin
164 Ide, Ohara, Sakyo-ku
Kyoto 601-1246
JAPAN
(Tel 075-744-3121)
A few verses, from “A Grasshopper” (PATHWAYS 2005, White Pine Press):

Still ascending
on mud, withered leaves, bright leaves –
the mountain path.

In the sunlight
Each pine cone
Glistening.

On undisturbed snow
No one is walking,
Tomorrow it will melt.

(Written by Jane Wieman. Tel 075-881-2278, Fax 075-861-6885)

Trouble in Haikuland

2007-05-16T22:19:00.000+09:00

So, our all-mighty, ever-present, benivolent God Google is playing favorites, eh? Some of us can get in, and some cannot. I can write my heart's desires, and you cannot even open this can of worms. Funny. That is, strange. I mean, what is going on? Or: is it possible we have a worm in our midst? Or worse? I dare not write it for fear of awakening its ire to the point where we all are doomed.
But wait. We are poets, right? We thrive on challenges. We are now challenged. Shall we rise to this ocassion, or shall we sink? To whom can we turn, other than ourselves? What is the way out? The way out is the only way we poeds know: write a poem!
Here's one:
mysteries seen, felt, feared
seem real to innocents
but what's true to us: haiku
Take that, you worm!

Petalstorms へイルストーン花見：１と２

2007-04-17T15:24:00.000+09:00

A total of seventeen people participated in these two cherry-blossom-viewing events, both held in Kyoto – on April 1 and 14, respectively. The first was an evening of almost imperceptible spring drizzle moistening the newly-opened flowers, followed by a warm, hushed after-rain, through which there was a brief sighting of the full moon; the second, a glorious afternoon with occasional breezes spilling the white blossoms, now in full bloom.

We had with us two special poet guests: Sean O’Connor from Dublin at the first and Eugene Gloria from San Francisco at the second. At both, we shared sake, tea, snacks and poetry. The仏母心院pavilion beside Osawa Pond was our base for the first, although later we also visited the weeping shidare cherry-trees lit up in Mr. Toueimon Sano’s Garden nearby. We hired a platform in the spectacular Omuro Cherry Garden at Ninnaji for our second hanami, and wandered around from there. A few haiku from each:

under cherry blossoms
they say that ogres live –
no, not ogres;
oddballs, I think! 　　(Hisashi Miyazaki)

Tonight’s moon unseen
A house lamp glowing deeper
In the pond’s last light. 　　(Sean O’Connor)

a raindrop
slipping from a cherry flower;
fresh evening breeze. 　　(Mayumi Kawaharada)

By soft cloud and nightfall
The cherry blossom has been celebrated
Enough.　　 (Tito)

buzzing bees busy
savoring the blossoms –
people only look 　　(Jane Wieman)

clustered round the mobile phone:
oh, what a beautiful blossom!　　 (Richard Donovan)

petalstorms
bring shouts of joy ...
under the spring sun　　 (Mari Kawaguchi)

The Premier's Hand

2007-04-15T21:52:00.000+09:00

Dear Family,
A curious day. It began with Kaz and I getting up early to cycle before breakfast to the hill of cherry blossoms closest to us (rain, forecast for tonight, meant it would probably be our last chance). There, we learned from a temporary road sign and a friendly constable that Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, was due to visit Kyoto for a few brief hours later in the day.
As luck would have it, I was returning home in the afternoon through the dry ricefields in another part of Sagano, when I noticed a large number of men in black suits standing around in the paddies. Curiosity aroused, and using my intimate knowledge of the network of narrow agricultural tracks, I managed to avoid all the policemen and probable plainclothes heavies and get myself into position right beside a lonely farm near the back of Hirosawa Pond, where I soon learned the Premier was to arrive in just a few minutes.
The motorcade; the disembarkation; the swarming; the farmer's greeting; the stroll past the world's media, all herded into a neatly improvised triple-decker stand. I was with a group of local farmers and their wives, only about eleven or twelve of us in all - and one of the women shouted, Ni hau! Wen stopped in his tracks and waved at us. For fifteen minutes, then, he disappeared into the bowels of the farm, where, we later learned from the TV news, he sat on a tractor and delicately planted a tomato seedling in the soil. The fences and bushes fairly bristled with those dark-suited men with wires running into their ears (many no doubt with hidden guns and kung-fu black belts to boot). A helicopter hovered high over the pond.
His arm around the old farmer, eventually he reemerged, and the entourage streamed down towards the waiting motorcade. Wen again looked over to the motley assortment of token locals just out of reach - and trouble - across a couple of small fields and ...

/ ... he turns sharp right towards us instead of getting back into his car. It is as if he is making a bid for freedom. He is suddenly upon us. The first farmer, caught unawares, has his back turned; but when the Premier thrusts out his hand, the farmer whoops aloud and, looking straight at Wen, screams the not-entirely appropriate salutation, "Banzai!" And now he comes to me and offers me his hand. It is small, warm, rather soft, but full of - how shall I put it - well, ... a sort of grace. He smiles, says something in Chinese I take to mean 'Nice to meet you!' and strides on to a grassy paddy-edge just behind me, where some rustiques veritables are gaffing, their faces so obviously not suntanned just by the few good days of spring so far ... /

And then he was gone, and all eighteen cars with him; and the heli receded. There was just an excited murmuring of people moving back through the fields as the policemen relaxed their stiff walkie-talkie poses.
This evening, we took Padparadshah to the vet; he hasn't eaten for more than a week. He has cat AIDS. The vet has given him less than a month to live. And now it rains and rains.
We send you lots of love,
Tito

To spring earth
And speedwell,
A tiny orange butterfly and ...
The Head of the Chinese State.

(Sagano, Kyoto, 13.4.07)

NOTICE BOARD お知らせ

2007-04-03T14:43:00.000+09:00

Yamanobe no michi (excerpt)

2007-03-26T22:03:00.000+09:00

saturday morning...up early to make the rendezvous in tenri. the plan is to do a 16km walk on the yamanobe no michi, reported to be the most ancient road in japan. tomorrow we'll do another 6km's to reach asuka, the ancient capital. it's been at least ten years since i've done something as strenuous as this might be. it's also the first time since my children were born that i'll spend the night away from home. i'm a bit worried about how the three year old will behave when i'm not there to take him through his bedtime routine. i don't expect the one year old to lose any sleep over my absence.

the local train
deeper and deeper into nara
autumn green

duro jaiye

Hotspot Contributors List

2007-03-02T21:44:00.000+09:00

HOTSPOT CONTRIBUTORS: You will notice that most of your names have disappeared from the online contributors list. Our sitemaster, David McCullough, explains: "Our weblog site, which is provided by Google, is now requiring members to have a Google password before they can post on the website. If you wish to look at the website or add comments, you can do so freely as before. If you are a contributor to the Hotspot website your membership is still active, but in order to be able to post haiku in the future you will require a Google password. Just clicking on the Blogger button (orange B at the top lefthand corner of the Hotspot page) will take you to the Blogger Dashboard and, by clicking on 'New Post', you will be guided to set up a Google account. It is free and not difficult! Please do so as soon as possible so we can see all of our contributors listed on the website once again. Thank you."
WOULD-BE CONTRIBUTORS: If you are not yet a contributor and would like to be invited or re-invited, please ask David, Hisashi or Stephen. Contribution is only open to Circle participants, although anyone anywhere in the world may comment! You can leave a request through the COMMENTS key immediately below, if you like!

out of the high air

2007-02-22T18:43:00.000+09:00

I know, I know. So, here I am to give you poemers the latest stuff from my brush. First, the setting: I climbed a low mountain, Mt Enigame-yama, alone recently, spending the night near the top. The top itself would have been too cold. Had a remarkable experience, and got lots of ideas. The following offerings were not written until I descended to sea level, as it were. Needless to say, liberties have been taken with these poems, as is the want and way of poets. But they capture the atmosphere and air of the event.

CAMPING ON MT. ENIGAMI-YAMA

these hills, trees, soundless wind in
an early spring hike
brings us close to the divine

night; meal done, fire dying;
the dark wants no sound,
I hold my breath in rapture

before dawn; calls for the sun
waken the forest
from dreams of spring, into spring

sleeping alone in spring dampness;
waken to cold shivers;
then: the sudden sun

twitter, twitter, churpie-churp,
skitter, scatter, stare;
then, OH, quick: here comees the bear

some morning birds watch me fix
soup, eggs, bacon, fruit;
I feel sorry tho: no worms

There was no bear, of course, or none I caught sight of, tho he may have had his post-hibernation eyes on me. More of this sort of things anon.
Steiner

初句会 New Year Poem Contest in Osaka

2007-01-28T13:40:00.000+09:00

Hamayashiki, Aikawa, 27 Jan. From the 30 or so entered, one poem from each of 15 contestants was selected by Jane Wieman without knowing the identity of the poets. Mari Kawaguchi typed them onto a sheet that was distributed to the kukai attendees. We were then given 10 points each to allocate between our favourite 3 haiku; and were later asked to explain why we had liked those three. The photo above shows winner, Mayumi Kawaharada, receiving her prize from a 'new look' Tito. We had time to discuss all poems on the sheets and found at least some merit in most. The kukai is a fun way to get some critical feedback on your poems. For full results, click the COMMENTS key.

Parallel vapor trails

grow in a clear blue sky -

New Year

(Mayumi Kawaharada, 21 points)

vapor rising

above New Year's mochi -

the white-clad shopkeeper

praises this year's beans

(Keiko Yurugi, 14 pts.)

NOTICE BOARD お知らせ

2007-01-28T12:34:00.000+09:00

Misty Wanderings

2007-01-14T15:53:00.000+09:00

One Saturday in early December, 9 of us ventured out to ramble
around the Philosopher's Path and see if the muse would oblige.
It was a soft day, and while taking time to wonder at our
surroundings was hard for some, others thought that maybe
because it was raining they could make a poem that would have
that 'extra edge'. After all, haiku is about nature, isn't it? Actually
the sights along the path were stunningly beautiful; the sheen
of wet stone carvings at Otoyo Jinja, crimson maple leaves on
the steps up to Anryaku-ji, Honen-In in the mist, the simplicity
of Tanizaki's grave and so on; it was a visual feast. Sight after
sight of Kyoto's attractions, almost too good to be true. The
last of the autumn's colours intensified by being wet. Walking
through such opulence, it was hard to think in terms of the
spare restrained world of haiku, but by the end of day we had
captured something of the flavour of early winter.

leafless
yet the tree rustles
Christmas ornaments
on a turning wire

(Mari Kawaguchi)

at the temple gate
poised between sacred and temporal
longing for a smoke

(Hisashi Miyazaki)

deeply serrated
the oak leaves pattern the path...
jazz at my feet

(Keiko Yurugi)

Yellow, orange, red
Embers of autumn on
a moss-green carpet

(Mayumi Kawaharada)

moist glade-
under Buddha's gaze
birds sing

(Moya Bligh)

Early Cherry Blossom

2007-01-12T19:28:00.000+09:00

For those of you who still haven't, you can listen to my latest BBC Radio programme, Cherry Women, Cherry Men, which contains lots of haiku and tanka, at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/sundayfeature/pip/k6ijr/. It is 45 minutes long, but the site remembers where you listened to, so installment listening is no problem. It will be taken off the site pretty soon, however! Quickly, please ...

Happy Birthday Hotspot

2007-01-10T12:33:00.000+09:00

The Hotspot Haiku Circle Blog has reached its first birthday.
During the year we have had 113 original haiku or short poems published on this blog by 20 different poets.
Richard Steiner, Jonathan Gott and Gerald Staggers have been our most exuberant and prolific contributors.

You can easily review the published haiku by using the monthly archive listing at the side of this page. Among the many fine poems we have published, here are two of my favourites:

Following the monk
With a key as long as a wand ...
Autumn leaves
(Tito, November)

Winter storm churning
The park's high oaks and beeches -
Cat shifts in my lap.
(Jonathan Gott, December)

The Third Day

2007-01-03T20:33:00.000+09:00

聞きなれた声聞こえ来て三日かな
familiar voices
from PC-
the third day

My old PC couldn't download the procedure for BBC broadcast, but my wive's new one can! The third day is a kigo of new year: the 1st day (Ganjitsu元日, the beginning day of the year), 2nd day (futsuka二日), 3rd day (mikka三日), 4th day (yokka四日), 5th day (itsuka五日), 6th day (muika六日) and 7th day (nanuka 七日or Jinjitsu人日), all mean days in January alone in Japanese haiku. These days in eastern Japan, Kanto area (in western Kansai area, plus days till 15th) are said to be within the pine tree which is a auspicious plant. Kansai people thus have longer joyous days! Interesting?

from Tito in Bali

2007-01-02T19:31:00.000+09:00

A power-cut plunges

the festival procession

into age-old darkness ...

lit by embers thrown.

(Lodtunduh, Bali, Indonesia, 24.12.06)

Year end

2007-01-01T05:24:00.000+09:00

Private dentist says
"I'll start with the little things."
Not at your prices!
_________________________

Bibliophile friend
Turning over a new book -
The side lamp's warm light.
_________________________

Blown this way and that
By a storm-force sou'-wester,
Seagull struggles on.

our new Blog site

2006-12-27T13:10:00.000+09:00

OK, now we all have this new, super, full-bodied, sweet-smelling, easier-to-use, non-beta Blog. Does this not give rise to a poem? What a thrill.

old blog out, new blog in;
dog out, boar in;
simultaneous joys.

back in the saddle

2006-12-22T22:25:00.000+09:00

Well, all you haiku-beats, i know that, whenever you have gathered together, on hilltops or riversides, the question inevitable arises "Where's Richie's rich works?", or something like that. As was once said, a rose being a rose, so, here I am with another pail of poems milked from the haiku-moos curding away in the bowers of Kansai. How could I resist so long, staying away from you all? I, too, wonder. No excuse. Then, let's to it.

late, cold and dark, no moon, stars;
I and some crow tumble
thru this air seeking our nests.

a cry high above, one bird, circling,
seeking its nest in
this clueless night.

this silent, serene sunset;
winter winds also stop
to gaze on it.

here a breast, there a breast,
what fun it is
to keep abreast of the news.

a yellow tinkle in the snow;
cold school boys can't wait
to get home.

NOTICE BOARD お知らせ

2006-12-07T10:40:00.000+09:00

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 ￥1,300
***********************************************
***HAILSTONE EVENTS***
(RECENT PAST: for event reports, see archive postings)
Mar 12, 2006 Mt. Ogura Is Shedding Tears Part VII, Saga, Kyoto (Ginko, SG/ACE)
May 07, 2006 Ginko under Fresh Green Leaves, Oyamazaki, Kyoto (HM/MK)
Aug 03, 2006 Summer Evening on the Water, Arashiyama, Kyoto (Kukai, 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)
December 9 (Sat) Ginko under Autumn Leaves, Tetsugaku-no-michi, Kyoto (MB/KY)
(FORTHCOMING: for further details, please see separate postings; enquiries through the COMMENTS key, please.)
January 27 (Sat.) 2007 The first Kukai of 2007 (Hatsu-kukai), OSAKA Hamayashiki. Rendezvous: 12:30. Meet at either Hankyu Aikawa west exit (organizers waiting) or JR Suita barrier of east exit (Hisashi Miyazaki waiting).
Everyone attending should bring a bento (available on the way to Hamayashiki) and send Mari (fax or email) 1 to 3 Eng. haiku (clearly written) for the kukai by Jan. 22. Haiku on the subject of New Year are welcomed!
Even if you cannot attend, you can still submit poems!
A beautiful room has been booked. Tea served. Interesting historical vicinity will be explored briefly if good weather. 17:00 Disperse.
(Organizers: Mari Kawaguchi and Reiko Hayahara).

Live-in job

2006-12-07T06:47:00.000+09:00

Winter storm churning
The park's high oaks and beeches -
Cat shifts in my lap.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Anesthetized mouth:
'Try eating some chocolate',
The dentist enjoins.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Korean student
At ease with an older man:
Here we go again.

More Ichoo

2006-11-28T11:40:00.000+09:00

outside my kitchen door

the universe explodes -

golden leaves,

blue sky!

2006-11-23T15:32:00.000+09:00

leaves on my favorite cherry tree cold autumn wind

(duro jaiye)

Gingko: A first haibun

2006-11-16T12:26:00.000+09:00

This autumn, walking from the train station towards the office has become particularly pleasureable, as the promenade is parallel to the Kamo River, whose banks are lined with the colourful emblems of the season - Japanese maples (momiji), cherry blossoms and gingko - even the evergreens stand out in the autumn light and in contrast to the other deciduous trees. Gingko is a new tree I've learnt only to identify as late as this autumn - they became transformed in my mind from roadside ubiquity (how heartless of me!, I thought with my new knowledge) to stunning, golden, waving statues, like the bunga emas of royal Malayan tributes. The gingko tree caught my breath when I first saw it, its branches blazing like torches by the streetlight on a dark night in Osaka. Down the Kawabata towards the office, I am constantly looking down on the ground, seduced by their fan-shaped leaves.

And so I bless the road-sweeper who hadn't come to do our gingko-strewn path yet.

subway exit -
blinded by dazzling yellow light
spilled gingko leaves

----
*I wrote this haibun last autumn in Kyoto. I am back in Columbus, Ohio in the United States, continuing my doctoral studies in Geography. I'd so long associated gingko with my first encounters with the tree in Japan, but this past week, I was very pleased to look down on the ground next to my school building to find the familiar golden fan-shaped forms - I looked up, and there it was, a gingko tree I hadn't noticed at all before. I was pleasantly transported back in time to my brief but memorable stay in Kyoto when I first learned to appreciate the sight of gingko in fall.

Mount Ogura Part VIII

2006-11-14T23:22:00.000+09:00

We're twenty or so. An intro to the mountain - and the campaign to revive it with poems - at Tree of Repose. A ninth century tanka read from an iron bridge over Marutamachi. Ogura Pond, with its stagnant green growth; and not far away, old Kensho-san, priest of Jojakkoji, unlocks the shrine of Fujiwara Teika, who glares darkly from within.

Following the monk

With a key as long as a wand ...

Autumn leaves

(Tito)

The most likely site of Teika's villa, ... now a kind of kitchen garden with withering lotus in pots. A day from Basho's Saga Nikki declaimed from Zen's field, opposite the gate to Rakushisha. The tiny gravestone, beneath which Kyorai most probably squats; and then the stone-lined well, boarded away into oblivion, which another poet used when he renounced the world aged twenty-three.

Saigyo's tears -

Rammed down his well

Plastic pipes

(John Dougill)

Trudging up Mt. Ogura, past an Emperor's grave, to Kisen (Turtle Spring). It's seen better days. Could be such a watery welcome to the ancient path to Teika's Vale, which nestles in the hilltop woods three hundred feet above. Instead, it is full of abject ruin - old wires drag, pots and bottles now in shards; the spring seeps by a sack of cement long since set completely rigid.

A house rotted away

In an autumn mountain -

Highway noise

(Mayumi Kawaharada)

Down to the Senou Cafe, where we find the full moon, pale red, floating outside its eastern window. Walking on towards Osawa Pond for a party-of-verse in the twilight ... thinking of the mountain whom so many before us have loved and praised.

Endless the pathways

Redolent of times gone by -

Ogura's shadow

(John McAteer)

Yamanobe Way Haike & Asuka Rengakai

2006-11-02T11:35:00.000+09:00

Over the weekend of Oct. 14/15, eleven members of the Hailstone Haiku Circle took part in an extended event: five completed a haiku hike from Tenri 天理 to Asuka 飛鳥 Station in Nara Pref. (overnighting at the Kaikaro Ryokan in Sakurai) via the ancient Yamanobe no Michi 山之辺の道, with another six members walking (or cycling) most or part of the way. In the afternoon of the second day, a rengakai (linked verse session) was held in the Hyohyo organic cafe beside Asukadera in the ginko-no-renga style using verses composed along the Way, particularly those from Asuka. They were chosen to link onto an uncompleted ginko-no-renga Stephen had brought over from Yorkshire, U.K. a few months earlier. Ten verses have now been added to the ten composed by the BHS Roses Group, and it is hoped the final international product will be published next year. We were blessed with halcyon weather, ripe persimmons and some early autumn colour. The first photo was taken from a vantage point near Omiwa Shrine, looking westwards over Emperor Jomei's 'Dragonfly Isle' (Akitsushima 蜻蛉島, see poem 2 in the Manyoshu) towards the three famous Yamato hills of Unebi, Miminashi and Amanokagu. None of us will forget the almost mystical experience we had there! The second photo was taken in Asuka on the last kilometer of the 27 km haike. Five haiku from the event:

Lark on the wing/The rice fields shimmering/For joy

dragonflies/invading the village/over its moat

lotus leaves drag me back/the path leads me on

Paddyfield on paddy/Stacked up to the peak;/Autumn mikoshi/Leaves its cry.

a farm pond/under rainbow-coloured clouds

(haiku by JD, HM, RD, T, and MSb; a mikoshi is a shrine palanquin, usually gilt, in which a Shinto god is carried, with much shouting, around the village on a festival day; a moat 濠 is a water-filled defensive ditch, present in some of the medieval villages we passed on the Yamanobe Way)

NOTICE BOARD お知らせ

2006-11-01T11:58:00.001+09:00

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 ￥1,300 (reprinting now available, slightly larger format)
Lost Heian and Enhaiklopedia are currently available at Junkudo, 7F BAL Building, Kawaramachi, Kyoto, but no discount price for LH
***********************************************
***HAILSTONE EVENTS***
(RECENT PAST: for event reports, see archive postings)
March 12, 2006 Mt. Ogura Is Shedding Tears Part VII, Saga, Kyoto (Ginko, SG/ACE)
May 7, 2006 Ginko under Fresh Green Leaves, Oyamazaki, Osaka (HM/MK)
August 3, 2006 Summer Evening on the Water, Arashiyama, Kyoto (Kukai, JW/KY)
August 26, 2006 Renga Meeting in Shokado Garden, Yawata, Osaka (GS)
October 14 (Sat) Hailstone's annual Autumn Haike, Yamabe-no-michi, Nara (SG)
(FORTHCOMING: for further details, please see separate postings; enquiries through the COMMENTS key, please; for Sep/Oct/Nov Hailstone Hibikiai Forum workshops see sep. posting)
November 5 (Sun) Mt. Ogura is Shedding Tears Part VIII, Saga, Kyoto (Lecture-Ginko). Rendezvous: Saga Arashiyama JR Station 13:00. Organizers: SG and ACE
December 9 (Sat) Ginko under Autumn Leaves, Tetsugaku-no-michi, Kyoto. Rendezvous: Hotel Heian no Mori 10:30, W. of Shirakawa-Marutamachi. Organizers: Moya Bligh & Keiko Yurugi
Jan 27 (Sat) 2007 Rengakai, Kukai or Rodokukai sharing? Hankyu Aikawa, Osaka. Organizers: Mari Kawaguchi & xxx.

Exotic Species

2006-10-22T23:25:00.000+09:00

Lingering heat...
an exotic species of bamboo
along the garden path

Unexpected breeze
carp open-mouthed in the stream

Complainingー
a family finds seats
on the train

Is the black-robed priest
late for a funeral?

The old sprinkler
"shaka" "shaka" "shaka"
as it begins to turn

A farmer pisses
next to his little fire

Sunsetー
fallen twigs
with green acorns

Pluto
demoted

The crickets
and the owl
under the moon

More rouge on her lips
as she awaits his call

--------------------------------------

Exotic Species is a renga written at Shoukadou Garden, Kyoto, Japan (August 26th, 2006).

Participants in order of verse included Hailstone members and one guest: Duro J, Jane W, Jerry G, Jane W, Keiko Y, Jerry G, Keiko Y, Duro J, John M, Mari K. Report by Gerald Staggers (Duro J)

Shinjirarenai

2006-09-22T00:44:00.000+09:00

I don't believe it -
In the corner of the bus
Mushrooms are sprouting!

Haiku Workshop: Kyoto Hibikiai Forum in Autumn

2006-09-06T16:23:00.000+09:00

Full moon/Over Arashiyama/Who hunts in its light? (JW, Notre Dame Univ.)
pace of the river/where it divides/october moon (GS, Haiku Soc. Am.)
a cockroach/on the run -/in Osaka Station (HM, Br. Haiku Soc.)

Dates & Time: 3rd Thursdays of 3 autumn months. 18:15 - 19:45
Sep. 21: Instructor: Hisashi Miyazaki - selected topics of Japanese & English haiku, including “Insects in Haiku”. Bring‘ENHAIKLOPEDIA’, please.
Oct. 19: Instructor: Jane Wieman
Nov. 16: Instructor: Gerald Staggers
In the two latter workshops, your own haiku (previously submitted) will be polished and anonymously discussed. Topics about the structure and techniques of expression in English haiku will be also presented.

Place: Falafel Garden (3-16, Tanaka-Shimoyanagimachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto. 100 meters east from Demachi-Yanagi Station. Tel. 075-712-1856)

Fee: 2,000 yen/workshop, or 5,000 yen prepayment/3 workshops. (Please buy your drink and/or food separately in Falafel.)

All are welcome to attend these workshops! Both English and Japanese will be used.
For more information, contact Jane W. (in English), Keiko Y. (in Japanese) or use the COMMENT key under this post.

Of Friends Gone Overseas

2006-09-04T14:54:00.000+09:00

In April, I visited the Adelaide area and met up with ex-Hailstone, Valerie Matsumoto and her musician husband, Montz. While they were still living in Kyoto, some of you will remember that we once held a rengakai in their house near Ryoanji. Here is a photo of the two of them on a walk in the local woods. The kangaroos are wild, of course! Valerie told me she wasn't writing much these days. When or if she does so, though, perhaps we'll see something of it here?

Then, in July, while visiting the London area, I saw ex-Hailstone and 'Hotspot' contributor, Jonathan Gott in his hometown of St. Albans. A brief account of our ginko has already been posted and Jon has recently shared with us several of his new haiku. The photo above was taken in the Cathedral. Quiet, please ... Sssshh!

Renga-kai went well

2006-08-29T17:31:00.000+09:00

The renga-kai led by Gerald Staggers on Sat. 8/26/06 at Shokado Garden in Yawata city went well. Mari K., Keiko Y., Jerry G., John M., and Jane W. attended. A hot day but a very lovely garden, filled with insect voices, colorful carp, butterflies, variety after variety of bamboos and camellia… with old tea houses, here and there and a magical water harp (suikinkutsu). Under Gerald’s guidance we attempted to do a linked verse- in an air-conditioned room overlooking the garden. How far did we get? Gerald will let us all know! Thanks very much to Gerald. (jw 8/28/06)

Hailstones on the river

2006-08-25T15:20:00.000+09:00

Prologue

This senryu, from 1771, expresses my feelings after first attempting to negotiate with the boatman at Arashiyama for an outing on the river:

The customer looks, tries on without a purchase
and still the clever clothes merchant says
goodbye with utmost cordiality

We had had a long discussion but reached no agreement about departure time, price. What I wanted seemed impossible in the height of Ukai (cormorant fishing) season, yet as I left he yelled long and cordially after me as though we’d reached a million yen agreement.

The Weather Intervenes

After consulting with other Hailstones, and further negotiating with the boatman, the date was set for Thursday, July 20. The rains, though, started to fall before Gion Matsuri (7/17) and continued, leaving the river in full spate. No boats on the river that night.

Rough roiling river
All boats hauled ashore—
When can hailstones sail?

We rescheduled for the following Tuesday, July 25. The rain eased off and mild summer airs prevailed…

The waters flow clearer
Still too fast and high
For poem writing

I walked by the river that evening. Back and forth plied an
earth mover…no boats yet.

Twilight colored mauve and pink
The dredge nears invisibility
Only its noise betrays its movements,
Shore to midriver, midriver to shore
Redistributing the bottom debris
After ten days of rain.

We rescheduled for the third time, for August 3.

At long last, Hailstones on the River

Eight of us gathered at Hankyu Arashiyama station on a hot
afternoon.

Molten hailstones
Vaporizing into
Summer haze

We paid a visit to Ichitani Munagata Shrine, dedicated to female deities of the water, then descended to our boat. Candles were lit in the lanterns but their glow was not visible in the lingering daylight. It was suddenly cool as we entered the realm of the quiet River Oi between steep pineclad hills and were poled, almost silently, upstream to the rocks at the mouth of the Hozu Gorge. Keiko Yurugi had brought uchiwa but we didn't need them!

Following, in no particular order, are selected poems:

on the stream
sweet to my ears
the boat's gentle creaking

A heron
By the quiet mountain river
Fresh evening breeze

Darkening sky…
Jupiter over the mountain
romance

to the wild rhythm
of the fisherman's chant
cormorants plunge in

Across the water
Concession boats hawk their wares
The shrill stink of squid

Cormorants in a row
First quarter moon above
Downgorge breezes

Guyjin overboard…
At the weir the boat almost leaves
Without them

Torchlight blazing
Cormorants splash;
Blue half moon

Under firelight
cormorants dive for fish:
On the dim bank
sweethearts

after the fishing’s done
cormorants dry their wings
at the sputtering fire　

Above Arashiyama
Jupiter conjunct with the Moon:
Hailstones on the river

At last we disembarked and walked downstream to Otoya, where we ate (though some had enjoyed oden and ikayaki earlier) and agreed to share our poems— of which those above are only a sampling.

Poets in order of their contribution to 'selected poems': Keiko Y, Mayumi K, Akito M, KY, John M, Mari K, Jane W, Mayumi K, Hisashi M, David M, JW.
Special thanks to Hisashi Miyazaki for his computer and patience!

(report by Jane Wieman, 8/25/06)

NOTICE BOARD お知らせ

2006-08-24T11:56:00.000+09:00

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 ￥1,300 (reprinting now available, slightly larger format)
Lost Heian and Enhaiklopedia are currently available at Junkudo, 7F BAL Building, Kawaramachi, Kyoto, but no discount price for LH
***********************************************
***HAILSTONE EVENTS***
(RECENT PAST: for event reports, see archive postings)
March 12, 2006 Mt. Ogura Is Shedding Tears Part VII, Saga, Kyoto (Ginko, SG/ACE)
May 7, 2006 Ginko under Fresh Green Leaves, Oyamazaki, Osaka (HM)
August 3, 2006 Summer Evening on the Water, Arashiyama, Kyoto (Kukai, JW/KY)
August 26, 2006 Renga Meeting in Shokado Garden, Yawata, Osaka (GS)
(FORTHCOMING: for further details, please see separate postings; enquiries through the COMMENTS key, please; for Sep/Oct/Nov Hailstone Hibikiai Forum workshops see sep. posting)
October 14 (Sat) Hailstone's annual Autumn Haike (haiku hike), Yamabe-no-michi, Nara
Rendezvous: 08:30 Tenri Kintetsu Station. Organizer: Stephen Gill
October 15 (Sun) Ginko-no-Rengakai (in assoc. with UK Roses Group), Asuka, Nara
Rendezvous: 10.05 Kintetsu Asuka Station. Organizer: SG
November 5 (Sun) Mt. Ogura is Shedding Tears Part VIII, Saga, Kyoto (Lecture-Ginko). Rendezvous: Saga Arashiyama JR Station 13:00. Organizers: SG and ACE
December 9 (Sat) Ginko under Autumn Leaves, Tetsugaku-no-michi, Kyoto. Rendezvous: Hotel Heian no Mori 10:30, W. of Shirakawa-Marutamachi. Organizers: Moya Bligh & Keiko Yurugi
Jan or Feb 2007 Rengakai, Kukai or Rodokukai sharing? Hankyu Aikawa, Osaka. Organizers: Mari Kawaguchi & xxx.

to have and to have not

2006-08-15T01:54:00.000+09:00

Begging on the train
To pay for his night shelter:
The epileptic.

Tsuyu

2006-08-14T23:47:00.000+09:00

the japanese call it "tsuyu" or "plum rain"ー the rainy season rain that usually comes around the middle of june and lasts for about three weeks. this year, the year of the dog, it's late; about a month later than expected;ー and seemingly heavier. when i get up in the morning it's already pouring, and continues well into the day. despite the suspicious lulls here and there we're still tempted to venture out without an umbrella. mapping the clouds, gambling our luck, this is how this year's "tsuyu" affects our movements.

rainy season mist dissolves a swarm of dragonflies

at night it's like clockworkー the rhythm of the clouds...passing, dumping, moving onー a driving rain that tapers off, but not quite ending before the next dumping takes over in full force. just by hearing i can see them clearly; a seemingly endless string of heavy bloated clouds trying so hard to make up for lost time.

five straight nights the hard & soft lullaby rain

duro jaiye

2006-08-14T23:34:00.000+09:00

the heat...
every so often
the metal chime

duro jaiye

A Taste of Brittany

2006-08-14T14:41:00.000+09:00

Roof of my mouth

Astringent with an unripe myrtle -

The long dolmen tomb.

(Tito, Locmariaquer, France, 28.7.06)

overheard

2006-08-12T01:38:00.000+09:00

Down at the White Swan,
Drinking regulars discourse
On the Magdalene.

Twenty-year-olds here:
'F_ing this and f_ing that' -
How I miss Japan!

one more

2006-08-08T02:47:00.000+09:00

At the car boot sale:
His late wife's shoe collection
Going for a song.

Notes to assist:
1) car boot sale = flea market in which used goods are displayed in the open backs of cars.
2) late = dead
3) going for a song = offered for sale extremely cheaply

Haiku Afloat

2006-08-05T16:01:00.000+09:00

Many thanks to Jane Wieman and Keiko Yurugi for organising a wonderful evening afloat on the river at Arashiyama. A full report follows soon.

The old boatman
Stretches his arms
In the evening's first breeze.

AUGUST EVENT/Renga Meeting (Aug. 26)

2006-08-03T11:37:00.000+09:00

Gerald has announced:
> Hello Hailstoners,
> On Saturday August 26, 1-4pm,
I will hold a summer renga at shoukadou garden in Yawata city (10 minutes by bus from the Keihan Yawata train station).
A room with wide windows on the garden grounds has been reserved for 20 people. Preliminary plans include meeting at 11:30am at the Keihan Yawata train station for those who would like to stroll around the garden, or have lunch before the renga. food and drinks are ok in the "renga room", but not allowed on the garden grounds.
> The main feature in the garden is The Soan Shoukadou Tea Room, which is located in the inner garden surrounded by a moss garden and a man made dry garden hill. It is a nationally designated site. Other features in the garden include over 40 species of bamboo and over 200 arieties of camellias (which bloom in spring/sorry).
> Please come to this social group game and see if your haiku can fit into the renga; old haiku, new haiku, seasonal haiku, moon haiku, cherry blossom haiku, three line and two line haiku; see if yours can fit.
> more detail s to follow or feel free to contact me.
> gerald/
Otherwise, please contact through the comment button under this post.

Just only enjoying the meet watching the beutiful garden, is OK.

Hot July

2006-08-02T01:12:00.000+09:00

Entering the bank:
Not out of decency, boys
Put on their T-shirts.

'These bikini-tops',
The churchgoer remonstrates
As he follows her.

The heat receding -
Time for laying new flowers
At the cemetery.

wild river

2006-07-24T19:25:00.000+09:00

As the Katsuragawa is still not prepared to receive haikuists, here is a peace offering to rainy season rivers:

a swallow flits
from treeshadow
skimming the wild river,
lost in the gathering sky

St. Albans Ginko

2006-07-21T02:56:00.000+09:00

On Tanabata, I went with an old friend, Kim Richardson, to see Hailstone contributor, Jonathan Gott, in his hometown of St. Albans, to the north of London. It was a pleasant early summer day with a hint of rain in the air. Jon was in good form, and he led us on a gentle ginko tour of the ancient city, replete with its Roman ruins, magnificent medieval cathedral and its quaint winding streets. Jon hasn't yet sent me any of his haiku from the day. Perhaps this will encourage him to post one? For now, then, one of mine ...

A dove, snug
On the sign to the Hypocaust -
Clearing showers.

... and a senryu of Kim's ...

'I like a good bum on a woman'
he says, picking up
his knife and fork

Summer Evening on the Water-postponed

2006-07-20T22:05:00.000+09:00

Summer Evening on the Water-Boat Cruising on the Oi River, Arashiyama, and Kukai
DATE CHANGED again (because of bad weather):
August 3 (Thursday) 18:00 - 21:00
RENDEZVOUS (not changed):
18:00 Hankyu Arashiyama Station, just out of the ticket gate.
Please apply to the organizers, Jane Wieman or Keiko Yurugi, or through the comment button under this post.

Spoiled parade

2006-07-17T17:39:00.000+09:00

Today, the Grand Gion Gathering, got soaked aplenty. Horrendous downpours interspersed with fine mists between drizzles. Altogether, not much fun. Not much poetry, either. Nevertheless, a damp attempt:

wooden wheels grinding bamboo sliders
into splinters, grieving Gion

damp Gion's smells and sounds:
grunting men pelted by cats-and-dogs

The Kyushu greens

2006-07-09T21:16:00.000+09:00

Just returned from a week in Miyazaki, to give a talk on Prints and Poetry at Miyazaki International College, and visit a new museum for exhibition discussion. Didn't take one week. So, went here and there drawing pastels and composing poems. Here's one:
in the lashing rain
a storm of confused
intentions; hers vs mine

green rain, uplifted face
of a child beneath a palm;
I smile, he nods

young, shy, curious, cautious;
licks my wrist, slobbers a bit,
pretty cow

NOTICE BOARD お知らせ

2006-06-24T11:26:00.000+09:00

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 ￥1,300 (reprinting now available, slightly larger format)
Lost Heian and Enhaiklopedia are currently available at Junkudo, 7F BAL Building, Kawaramachi, but no discount price for LH
***********************************************
***EVENTS***
(PAST: documents are in other posts.)
March 12, 2006 Mt. Ogura Is Shedding Tears Part VII.
May 7, 2006 Ginko under fresh green leaves. 新緑の大山崎吟行
August 3, 2006 Summer Evening on the Water (Kukai)

(FORTHCOMING: for some events we still need organizers; offers and ideas through the COMMENTS key, please!)
August 26, 2006: Renga Meeting in Shokado Garden in Yawata city. Organizer: Gerald Staggers. See another post for details.
AUTUMN (Sep.-Nov.): 1-2 day Haike (haiku hike). Prob. October. Organizers: David McCullough & xxx.
Ginko under autumn leaves. Kyoto. November. Organizers: Moya Bligh & Keiko Yurugi.
WINTER (Dec.-Feb. 07): Rengakai, Kukai or Rodokukai Sharing? Prob. January '07. Rendezvous: Hankyu Aikawa, Osaka. Organizers: Mari Kawaguchi & xxx.

Long Meg & Her Daughters

2006-06-22T19:32:00.000+09:00

Walk right around

The full circle ...

And only then

The solstice sun comes out.

(Tito, Little Selkeld, Cumbria, England, 20.6.06)

Summer Evening on the Water

2006-06-22T10:45:00.000+09:00

DATE: July 20 (Thursday) 18:00 - 21:00

RENDEZVOUS:
18:00 Hankyu Arashiyama Station, just out of the ticket gate.

PROGRAM:
18:00 Rendezvous - (Ichitani Munagata Shrine) - 18:30 Boading (in front of the shrine) - (Cruising) - 19:30 Landing - Kukai (on the lawn nearby or at a cafe) - 21:00 Breakout
GUIDANCE:
It would be nice to be in the boat by 18:30 to catch the last of the daylight and drift through dusk to return after nightfall.
For kukai, please bring your recent haiku or fresh-composed ones on the boat. If you have any troubles with expressing your images, let’s discuss it.

NOTICE: IMPORTANT!
Please reserve your place soon! By JUNE 30 (FRIDAY), 06.
The boat fare is 1,700 yen.
Please apply to the organizers, Jane Wieman or Keiko Yurugi, or through the comment button under this post (in that case, by June 28).

O-YAMAZAKI GINKO: E-/Fax-Kukai results

2006-06-20T18:31:00.000+09:00

Several days after the O-Yamazaki ginko (May 7, 2006), seven authors (ginko participants) submitted one or more haiku to the organizer and they, with the guest selector (Tito) and without the organizer, (seven in total) chose their 3-6 favorites. Here are the popular poems, in the order of our ginko procession:

10:00 Hankyu O-Yamazaki Station: Light spring rain / Too gentle for hailstones / Gathered at Oyamazaki (J. Wieman)
10:30 Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Art: Enjoyed nice artworks of Monet, Bernard Leach et al., and its beautiful garden.

an old paulownia
in full bloom
above the new Villa-Museum (S. Sasaki)

green under green
the rain, licking leaves ...
a small stray from the brook (M. Kawaguchi)

12:00 Houshakuji Temple: Visited Yama (the King of Hell), Eleven-face Bodhisattva (a Buddhist Saint saving all people) and Daikokuten (one of the Seven Lucky Gods). breeze on Mt. Tenno - / sometimes hidden by fresh leaves / an old 3-storied pagoda (S. Sasaki)
13:30 Yamazaki Sokan’s Haiku Monument: May comes - / shrilly cries, / a laughing cuckoo (Sokan, 16th century, before Basho).
At vestige of a hut, where / Ancient poets had a kukai. / A purple paulownia petal fallen. (M. Kawaharada).

After lunch, hurried toward a distillery with a tacit understanding of our ultimate purpose.
before drink / lighting a cigarette - / out of Yama’s stare (H. Miyazaki)
On the way, there was a shortcut through a tunnel with a small stream alongside.
Into Stygian darkness / We plunge on our way / From the King of Hell / To Suntory Distillery (J. Wieman), and also on the way,

in a narrow patch
field peas plump with spring…
f f f f f f f f f (K. Yurugi)

15:00 Suntory Distillery: Studied the zymurgy of whisky making.

at the mash-house door -
a grandmother swallows
the hot, sweet stink of whisky (D. McCulough)

16:30 JR Yamazaki station: Still gently raining. Punctually dispersed.

Small Worlds ー　A Mini Sequence

2006-06-19T15:25:00.000+09:00

a bee boards the bus...threat of rain

my backyard: wasps expand their territory

cool breeze...tonight i'm faster than the mosquitos

Duro Jaiye

11th International “KUSAMAKURA” Haiku Competition

2006-06-18T10:50:00.000+09:00

11th International “KUSAMAKURA” Haiku Competition Meet, November 26 (Sunday), 2006, in Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan.
Haiku application deadline: September 29, 2006 (Postmarked on this day).
Application: Up to two haiku, free of charge. Name, nationality, gender, age, address, phone number, (occupation) and (email address), please.
Awards: Grand Prize; Round trip air fare to Kumamoto, accommodations for 4 days, 3 nights at a local hotel and 50,000 yen. 1st prize; 5,000 yen. 2nd prize; 1,000 yen.
Send your haiku to: “Kusamakura” Haiku Competition, c/o Bunka Shinko ka (Cultural Promotion Section), City of Kumamoto, 1-1 Tetorihoncho, Kumamoto City 860-8601, Japan.
For more information: http://www.jonet.ne.jp/kusamakura/

What's his screen name ?

2006-06-03T11:20:00.000+09:00

I happened to meet a film site of a historical drama, maybe for CM.
An actor without lines only laughs aloud.
The director lets him do it　again and again.
He will dream of becoming a big star someday.
His refreshing voice sounds through the beach of early summer.

the laughter of a ronin -
the young actor on the sands 　
studded with sea bells

Travel enlightens

2006-05-29T11:33:00.000+09:00

A few days ago, quite late at night and after yet another Good-bye party for Seika graduating students, somewhat illigally soddened and very much rain soddened, I took a wrong turn, got on some unknown highway and traveled thru to the dawn which found me in a suburb of Baghdad under fearce early morning fire. Across the street was some open shop where, I thot I could ask directions while ducking shrapnel. Before i could get off my bike, the shop took a direct hit and was evaporated as in a dream. Looking for better cover, I found the ruins nearby of some villa which still had an exquisite garden in tact. Crouching there, what to my wondering ears should appear but the sound of a breeze in one of the trees. I was not alone; a single, small bird was listening with me. Being ever the poet, as are you, the reader, I quickly dashed off these two hymns, as it were:

this small garden's tree sings,
a day in May;
one tiny bird and I,
both pleased.

wind in a May tree,
a sound hardly ever heard
in the city's streets

It is wonderful how well wine and wandering work together for art.

the rice-planting season

2006-05-19T22:48:00.000+09:00

Rainy weather-
rice-planting in the field
frogs croak rushing.

I look for whether creatures are there ,when I found a rice field filled with water. When I was child, I used to catch tadpoles(otamajakushi) and Triops longicaudatus (kabutoebi) in paddy field.

Uluru

2006-05-13T19:31:00.000+09:00

Bringing their tribute from the four corners of the earth, ... people, animals and plants. For what? For a rock; the Rock of Ages, a smooth red monolith pitted and creviced like the moon, horrendously old. The sun is not yet risen, but the living things collect to worship it - hands, in the mudra of awe; tails, flickering; leaves, trembling. Desert morning chill. With the first beam of horizontal sunshine, the gargantuan Rock glows like an ember. Then the crowds disperse.

A while later, near Mala Puta, my circuit pilgrimage begins. The Rock, ever on my right, rises up for hundreds of meters quite sheer, in capes and coves, some parts strangely perforated, resembling cavities in bone. Beneath a few of these, boulders have accrued, providing shelter for the tribute-bearers of dawn and dusk. In places, cave walls have been daubed with symbols in ochre, clay or charcoal: fire-sticks, stars, waterholes and snakes. Here, we are all part of a universe reduced to bare essentials, through which we move silently but mindfully. Rock fig and bush plum, aborigine and white, wallaby and skink - we wax and wane as the desert seasons pass. Uluru alone aloof, foursquare. An eye in the deep blue sky is watching us.

I come to a cave where Kuniya, the ancestral python, is thought to have her lair.

A clutch of giant stone eggs
In a scoop of red-striped rock -
Through spinifex grass,
The autumn breeze.

NOTICE BOARD お知らせ

2006-05-13T15:09:00.000+09:00

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 ￥1,300 (reprinting now available, slightly larger format)
Lost Heian and Enhaiklopedia are currently available at Junkudo, 7F BAL Building, Kawaramachi, but no discount price for LH
***********************************************
***EVENTS***
(PAST: documents are in other posts.)
March 12, 2006 Mt. Ogura Is Shedding Tears Part VII.
May 7, 2006 Ginko under fresh green leaves. 新緑の大山崎吟行

(FORTHCOMING: for some events we still need organizers; offers and ideas through the COMMENTS key, please!)

SUMMER (Jun.-Aug.): Rengakai, Kukai or Rodokukai Sharing? July or Aug. Organizers: Jane Wieman & xxx.

AUTUMN (Sep.-Nov.): 1-2 day Haike (haiku hike). Prob. October. Organizers: David McCullough & xxx.

Ginko under autumn leaves. Kyoto. November. Organizers: Moya Bligh & Keiko Yurugi.

WINTER (Dec.-Feb. 07): Rengakai, Kukai or Rodokukai Sharing? Prob. January '07. Rendezvous: Hankyu Aikawa, Osaka. Organizers: Mari Kawaguchi & xxx.

May 7 (Sun.) 06: O-Yamazaki Ginko Report.

2006-05-13T14:50:00.000+09:00

May 7 (Sun.) 06: Report. “Ginko under fresh green leaves,　新緑の大山崎吟行”
Light rain- Six hailstones of JW, KY, 2 MKs, DM and HM gathered in front of Hankyu O-Yamazaki station. Mr. S, a haiku poet, was an official voluntary O-Yamazaki guide for us that day.
First he told the history of this area in the O-Yamazaki History Museum. My personal three key words were the junction of three rivers (the Uji from Lake Biwa, Katsura from Kyoto Towns and Kizu from the Yamato Basin) where the Yodo begins to flow to Osaka Bay; Tai-an待庵, a Tea-ceremony Hut, built by Sen-no-Rikyu (1522-1591); and the Decisive Battle of Ten-no-zan by Mitsuhide and Hideyoshi in 1582.
Secondly we enjoyed seven Monet pictures of water lilies in O-Yamazaki Villa Museum of Art. Nice potteries by Bernard Leach, Kanjiro Kawai and other potters. As well, the hazy view from the terrace of the Kizu near the river junction, Mt. Otokoyama, Yahata and southern Kyoto towns and especially, wet fresh green leaves nearby in the rain.
We ascended a steep path looking up at purple paulownia flowers to visit Hoshakuji Temple where 11-faced Bodhisattva, Yama (the king of hell) and Daikoku-ten (one of 7 Lucky Gods) waited for us. - Readers can see a nice haibun with a Yama picture by DM in another Post.
We then descended a steep slope exclaiming, “O! The snail! Here!” to the foot of Mt. Ten-no-zan, at which we found the Sokan’s Haiku Monument: Sokan’s hut for Haikai-no Renga meet, Kan-non-do Reisen-an 観音堂霊泉庵, is said to have been there. うずききてねぶとに鳴くや郭公(uzuki kite / nebuto ni nakuya / hototogisu) May comes - / shrilly cries, / a laughing cockoo.
After late lunch, the finale of ginko was visit to Suntory Yamazaki Distillery. We studied zymurgy through the process of barley budding (malting), its fermentation with yeast, repeated distillation for spirit and its long-term aging to yield whisky. I saw Bacchus jumping around on casks piled up in the big, dim aging storehouse! In appreciation of the hard study, we enjoyed Suntory products such as whisky or “Nacchan” fruit juice.
Still lightly raining. Ginko punctually finished.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to S-san for his nice planning and guidance. Otsukare-sama!
(We are to have Kukai afterwards and haiku in this ginko will be opened later in another Post).

Hell

2006-05-08T09:40:00.000+09:00

Many thanks to Hisashi Miyazaki and Mari Kawaguchi for organising an excellent ginko in O-Yamazaki. A full report will be posted soon but here's my response to visiting the fantastic enma - a larger than life group of sculptures depicting the King of Hell and his acolytes deciding on the fate of the newly deceased - at Hoshakuji Temple.

face to face with

THE KING OF HELL

my atheist heart shudders

Maybe May

2006-05-07T17:33:00.000+09:00

Who can tell these days where we are in the mish-mash of weather surrounding us? Snow and lessor hailstones in April, thunder and sky-electricity bringing in May, freezing continued in March and Feb. was lost altogether to warm breezes. Earlier times, we would blame all this on the Communists. Not now. The Greeks? No doubt. They know much about life and poetry, and how to stay out of a fight while threatening one. I like that. Tough-bluff. Weather also figures often in their literature, and in their daily lives.
Here's a thing writ on Tinos Isle, after seeing Mary's Holy Winds blow believers to their knees:

On their knees, in prayer, in pain?
Mary blesses penitents always

The winds of Tinos in January are fierce. The church there, the main reason for going there, demands that believers crawl up the slope from the dock as a show of their unworthiness yet keen desire nevertheless to be absolved of their countless sins. Anyone foolish enough to try to walk up gets knocked down by the gales off the sea. Once, on my rented 50cc, heading thru the countryside for the volcanic peak, I was lifted up and disposed next to a dove-cote, where I was instantly devoured by man-eating pigeons. Mary blesses always, however.

under a wistaria trellis

2006-04-30T22:05:00.000+09:00

a wistaria trellis-
buzzing horseflies
busy in collecting honey

Fascinating cherry blossoms

2006-04-22T11:43:00.000+09:00

I met two amazing cherry blossoms this spring.
One was a new variety of cherry blossom recently named 'Izu Saihukuji-drooping '（伊豆最福寺しだれ）,in Tohi Shizuoka（静岡県土肥）.
The fair plump double petals looked very feminine.
It was just a day of a celebration of the anniversary of Buddha's birth.
An outdoor tea ceremony for a welcome was held.
All the people who visited here spent peaceful time in the temporary earthly paradaice.

consists of spring merit -
the grace cherry tree
drooping in peace

The other one was 'Wanizuka-mound Cherry'（わに塚のさくら） in Nirasaki　Yamanasi（山梨県韮崎）.
It standed alone in a field surrounded by mountains.
A lot of people had gathered round it to take photographs when I arrived in the morning.
In the evening I visited there again to share quiet time with this tree.
How inspiring this 300 years old tree was!
Fighting spirits of the creatures which survived in severe nature were felt.
It was a masculine cherry tree.

against the snow-capped mountains -
the burly cherry tree
barks towards the gibbous moon

2006-04-18T22:31:00.000+09:00

april rain...
new leaves
on my favorite
cherry tree

duro jaiye

New Zealand 2

2006-04-12T17:35:00.000+09:00

The colour of glowworms is like this (photo taken while climbing the Fox Glacier the following day)

New Zealand

2006-04-12T17:07:00.000+09:00

My palm is bathed
In the ice-blue light of glowworms :
Midnight grove.

(Fox Glacier, South Island, 10.4.06)

Tito

the persistence of memory: tanka

2006-04-12T02:09:00.000+09:00

In the bedcovers
I see places still alive
From our lovemaking -
For once in my narrow flat
I'm afraid to tidy up

Thinking of you
I completely forget
My cup of tea -
Which for an Englishman
Is saying a lot

Takaragaike

2006-04-09T10:16:00.000+09:00

the shining lake ...
a woman cries into her phone
as flowers fall

2006-03-31T17:02:00.000+09:00

after all that complaining;
another cold
spring
day

duro jaiye

Does someone know...

2006-03-28T19:23:00.000+09:00

The other day I was asked how to read a haiku of Lafcadio Hearn;

Nadeshiko ni
Chocho shiroshi
Tare no kon?

It is the haiku that Hearn published in 1915.
I haven't checked the original Japanese.
As for "kon", it means "soul". So my friend wonders it might be better to be read "tama" of tamashii=soul instead of kon.

2006-03-26T15:27:00.000+09:00

intermittent snowー
my son adds a plum blossom
to his collection

duro jaiye

2006-03-26T14:48:00.000+09:00

Equinox Blues

on the calendar it's spring; but the nip of winter is still in the air. my gloves and mufflers remain on call, i still need a hat to keep my bald head warm, and i still find myself walking with some sort of urgencyーeven for that short stroll to get a bottle of beer or a sweet snack.

plum blooming in the flower pot night rain

duro jaiye

Mount Ogura Is Shedding Tears Part VII

2006-03-20T12:03:00.000+09:00

The 小倉山が泣いている event on 12 March went well in spite of drizzle. There were three rendezvous, and all together about 20 people came. Some collected rubbish, others wrote poems, a few did both. If you haven't yet sent Stephen your poems, quickly please! The tea/beer party at Tree of Repose went on until 7. If you wish to help the project this year (rubbish clearing, felling dead pines, writing poetry, etc.), contact Okiharu Maeda of ACE, the supporting NPO aceokiharu@yahoo.co.jp in Eng/Jap. ACE won an Encouragement Prize in December for the Ogura project at the annual Osaka NPO Awards.　Here are a few of the poems collected from the day ...

谷風に乗り手冬は去りにけり

Wind in the valley - / Its passenger, winter / Departs.

(Zen'ichiro Nakamura)

spring mist - / at the once barren summit / trees this high

(duro jaiye)

High, high above the river / A broken television / Flies into space.

(David McCullough)

Train crosses a bridge, / Enters a tunnel - / Once more / The winter rapids sound.

(Tito)

spring?

2006-03-16T22:57:00.000+09:00

nowhere to go
this evening
white plum buds

Hailstone Haiku Circle 'Hotspot'

Hotspot cools off; Icebox heats up?

Titleless

With love from a seabird ...

Hatsu Ginko in Gion

NOTICE BOARD お知らせ(Feb. 16, Revd)

Seasons of the Gods

Maiko evening fragment

URGENT

Posting Difficulties

Amanohashidate and Kinosaki Haike

NOTICE BOARD お知らせ

Two New Tanka

At Mikami Shrine

A new, beautiful, hand-made haiku chapbook "The Moon and Insects"

Urban Ginko to Tenroku, N. Osaka

awe, pair

Snails

NOTICE BOARDお知らせ

Mumyo-an Renkukai

Painting Frogs and Trying to Listen to Them

VISIT

NOTICE BOARDお知らせ

Allelopathy

Kazue Frog

American "Memorial Day": May 2007

The Way of Providence is a Little Rude

FROM JANE

Trouble in Haikuland

Petalstorms へイルストーン花見：１と２

The Premier's Hand

NOTICE BOARD お知らせ

Yamanobe no michi (excerpt)

Hotspot Contributors List

out of the high air

初句会 New Year Poem Contest in Osaka

NOTICE BOARD お知らせ

Misty Wanderings

Early Cherry Blossom

Happy Birthday Hotspot

The Third Day

from Tito in Bali

Year end

our new Blog site

back in the saddle

NOTICE BOARD お知らせ

Live-in job

More Ichoo

Gingko: A first haibun

Mount Ogura Part VIII

Yamanobe Way Haike & Asuka Rengakai

NOTICE BOARD お知らせ

Exotic Species

Shinjirarenai

Haiku Workshop: Kyoto Hibikiai Forum in Autumn

Of Friends Gone Overseas

Renga-kai went well

Hailstones on the river

NOTICE BOARD お知らせ

to have and to have not

Tsuyu

A Taste of Brittany

overheard

one more

Haiku Afloat

AUGUST EVENT/Renga Meeting (Aug. 26)

Hot July

wild river

St. Albans Ginko

Summer Evening on the Water-postponed

Spoiled parade

The Kyushu greens

NOTICE BOARD お知らせ

Long Meg & Her Daughters

Summer Evening on the Water

O-YAMAZAKI GINKO: E-/Fax-Kukai results

Small Worlds ー A Mini Sequence

11th International “KUSAMAKURA” Haiku Competition

What's his screen name ?

Travel enlightens

NOTICE BOARD　お知らせ(Feb. 16, Revd)

NOTICE BOARD　お知らせ

Small Worlds ー　A Mini Sequence