Pips to Majors

Congratulaitions to Janice Westerberg

On winning first place in the FAA 'Image with Haiku' contest:



"This phrase popped into my brain,so I did a picture to go with it."

Congratulations to Judi and Don Hall!

Congratulations to Judi and Don Hall on a top placed position in the Fine Arts of America 'Image with Haiku' contest! "This collaborative spring haiga was inspired by the beautiful crabapple trees that bloom in Lethbridge, and the chinook wind that blows them about. Photograph by Donald S. Hall, digital artwork and haiku by Judi Suni Hall."

Congratulations Dawn Senior-Trask!

On winning the FAA 'Image with Haiku' contest!

"Dawn wrote this haiku at age 8 and illustrated it as a teenager. It portrays her life exploring the wild foothills of Wyoming's Snowy Range around her family's log cabin (see cabin in this pastel, way down below the ridge) and among the Navajo people in the deserts of Arizona."

Congratulations Elizabeth Hart!

Congratulations Elizabeth on winning first place in the 'Vision and Verse' contest :)

Take Five

Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, Volume 4 is now out (and includes my Tanka 'saturday dad', first published in Simply Haiku).

there was evening

woken by thunder

Dervish Dance Tanka

Blockhead

A motley fool in well-worn rags,

rip-torn and bejewelled

in bells and baubles,

rides by astride his hobbyhorse:

“I am”, he cries, “a thing of wood,

a Marotte stick that has no feeling.

The Tree of Life’s own loggerhead

with seventy-seven buds, all sprouted.”

“I have no wants of this world

and laugh at its prince. I drink his dregs

and dance his jigs, for they mean

nothing to me.”

“Let the Devil play his trump.

I shall play the Fool for Christ --

and Shakespeare too --

for both know I know nought.” 

With one foot bare and one foot shoed

he canters down the ciphered trail:

"Tarry 'til I come again", echoes

through the Christ cursed years.

Ferryman

Beneath the foam the blades

cut seaward, and constellations

sparkle in a hair-spray mist 

between the mare's tail wake

and mirrored cirrus skies.

Bare feet raised to breeze

upon the rails, he sees anew 

old ankles blotched and bloated; 

epiphanies passed in a daily shave’s

myopic view of jowls and wrinkles, 

masked in faces pulled 

beneath the foam and blade...

he looks away

to nod goodbye to Samos

and the horse, high on stilts,

pretending to be cloud

Quake

Walking out toward Pigeon Island

I pass men fishing from the rocks

with breaded hooks and baited looks

returning smile for knowing smile.

Suddenly I'm caught -- for a moment poised 

between an earthquake and a noise 

which groans from faults that lie below

and pound as ground grinds ground.

Excitedly the seagulls flock

to scraps of fish left on the rocks:

the sky is full of stink and cry

as squall carries squall and sewage.

Beneath the skin, his scent, a sigh:

My smile returns his knowing smile.

Red River Drifting

Between the red rolling river and the red brick lane,

in a shack that overhangs the embankment, 

a shot is fired. On the stove beans are boiling 

and there’s fresh fish waiting to be fried. 

Bats chirp among the wind chimes of the boat masts

on the water, a small town church bell rings.

Arse-slapped, newbones squeal. Blood falls

through floorboards into the red rolling river.

Rolling red past the pigs at outhouse gruntings,

the tappers cupping sap out in the groves,

past the ranchers at their whorehouse runtings,

the families at their TVs tapping soap,

past the church and voices singing

“Here He comes, hallelujah, here He comes”.

he sets his mind to unknown arts

The cripple and a preacher
lie sleeping in a doorway, stoned on vodka.
The cripple dreams a young man painting portraits:

At the sink his mother holds a herring by its tail
and with a knife she scrapes off its scales;
before the stove, smoky shades of grey define
his father's ashen beard, a smudge of scarlet, wine;
through the window are city domes and a bridge
beyond the labyrinth of his birthplace, the herring 
and tobacco, the synagogue and scriptures.

He awakes with his trousers unbuttoned
and is hard in a hand of the preacher:
he pretends he's still asleep and pictures
Pierot in a bowler hat, a fiddler at a window.

One hundred poems, one hundred poets. #3

Tiresome mountain trail
of the copper pheasant's tail, 

its long trailing tail,

how much longer is this night

I must also sleep alone?

Folkloric Background


In Japanese folklore mountain fowl are said to sleep alone, with pairs seperated at night on opposite slopes of the mountainside - hence the poets reference to himself sleeping alone 'also/too'.

あしびきの 
山鳥の尾の 
しだり尾の 
ながながし夜を 
ひとりかもねむ 


Kakinomoto Hitomaro


Romaji & crib:


ashibiki no (pillow-word modifier of mountain, peak)
foot/leg drag | of
yamadori no o no 
mountain fowl |of | tail | of
shidari o no 
drooping/trailing | tail | of
naganagashi yo o 
long, long so | night | acc. particle
hitori ka mo nemu
alone | do | also | sleep

One hundred poems, one hundred poets. #2

The structure of classical Japanese Waka (Tanka)

5 lines/ku

31 ‘syllables’ (on)

s/l/s/l/l

Upper Kami- no-ku

shoku

は ha

る ru

す si

ぎ gi

て te

5

niku

な na

つ tsu

き ki

た ta

る ru

ら ra

し shi

7

sanku

し shi

ろ ro

た ta

え e

の no

Pivot  line kakekotoba

5

Lower Shim-no-ku

shiku

こ ko

ろ ro

も mo

ほ ho

し shi

た ta

り ri

7

kekku

あ a

ま ma

の no

か ka

ぐ gu

や ya

ま ma

7

A phrase break (kugire)  after the 1st line/ku is called a shoku-gire, after the 2nd a niku-gire, etc. This poem breaks after the 2nd and 4th = 5/7, 5/7, 7. Haru sugite natsu kitaru rashi. Shirotae no koromo hoshi-tari, Ama no Kaguyama. A common prosodic pattern of classical waka.

haru

春

spring

koromo

衣

Garments, clothing

sugite

過ぎて

passed

ama-no

天の

heavenly

natsu

夏

summer

yama

山

mountain

Kitaru-rashi

夏来たるらし

Come(s), next, coming, came + suffix –rashi (it seems)

Kaga

香具

Name of mountain

Shiro-tae

白妙

White- (tae=bark fibre cloth – a common modifier of ‘white’ (pure, dazzling)

hoshi tari

ほしたり

To dry/air

春過ぎて 夏来たるらし 白妙の 衣ほしたり 天の香具山 持統天皇

I see spring has passed and summer come, it appears: delicate white robes are being hung out to air, on heavenly Mount Yaga. Empress Jito

One hundred poems, one hundred poets. #1

the thatch is rough

and my sleeves are wet

with tears

in a makeshift hut of straw

from the rice fields of autumn

秋の田のかりほの庵の苫をあらみわが衣手は露にぬれつつ

Aki no ta no kario no io no toma o arami waga koromode wa tsuyu ni nure tsutsu

(Emperor Tenchi)

from autumn's rice field

a makeshift hut of straw

its thatch so rough 

the sleeves of my robe

are wet with tears

in autumn's rice fields
a makeshift hut for shelter
its thatch so coarse
the sleeves of my robe
are damp with dew

秋 aki autumn

田 ta rice field, rice paddy, field

かりkari = harvested ears of rice

ほ ho rice-sheaf or bundle

かりほ kari-ho = sheafs of the harvested rice/dried rice sheafs

Kario = temporary huts (of dried sheaf?)

苫 toma rush matting/thatch

を O = case particle (with adjective stem + suffix mi) = cause

あら ara = rough/coarse

-み suffix mi, with case particle を O = since, because

O ara-mi = since/because (the rush-mat/thatch is) rough/coarse

庵 io, hut

-の -no  genitive post-particle

-Wa post-particle of nominative case, or separation of a phrase from the rest of a sentence.

わが waga = my, our

-wo post-particle of accusative case

衣 Koromo garment; clothes; dressing

手De hand

衣手 Koromode = sleeve

ぬれ nure = wet

つつ tsutsu = becoming, being, while;

露 tsuyu = dew, tears, expose,

に ni = case particle (to, in, on, into, at)

Aki no ta no

autumn of rice fields of

Kariho no io no

Temporary hut of hut of

Toma o arami

Rush-mat/thatch rough because

Waga koromode wa

My sleeves

Tsuyu ni nure tsutsu

Dew/tears on wet becoming


Because the thatch/rush-mat of the makeshift/temporary hut in the rice field of autumn is rough, my sleeves are wet with dew/tears

Daisies

Views of Kusadasi - The Millipark

Views of Kusadasi - The Seafront

Views of Kusadasi - The Seafront

Views of Kusadasi - The Seafront