low washbasin
in a recess by the hallway —
lingering cold
Hidden Things: silent and strident
紫陽花の下にちゃっかり野良座る
A clever stray cat —
enjoying cool air beneath
the hydrangea
(Sosui, Haruna, June)
A calico kitten
at the back of a flowerbed —
hideaway napping!
(Tito, Asuka, June)
after the fires —
a coyote pup’s whine
across the summer night
(Sydney, Golden, July)
Covid leave –
resonating through the window
Gion Festival sounds
(Mayumi Kawaharada, Kyoto, July)
late night … is it the same mosquito I begged to let me be?
(Duro, Osaka, July)
カナカナの声に驚く朝まだき
Just before dawn …
an evening cicada’s song
took me by surprise
(Sosui, Haruna, July)
Red ball of sun
dropped behind Mt. Nijo:
through our cucumbers
dusk-cicadas’ chime
(Tito, Asuka, August)
the sleigh-bells of crickets
jingling in the background —
darkness
(Sydney, Golden, August)
Some explanation and an expansion of this post are now available in the first two comments below, left respectively by Tito (Stephen Gill) and Sosui (Nobuyuki Yuasa).
The Ancient Temple Town
It is cloudy when we leave the hotel, but by the time we get to Mahabalipuram (anciently, Mamallapuram), it clears up and the June sun is out. The seashore town is famous for its temples and monolithic structures, constructed during the Pallava dynasty in the 7th and 8th centuries. I had visited the place many times as part of mandatory school trips from Chennai, but the recent International Chess Olympiad seems to have given the site a new life.
two butterflies / chase each other across / Shiva’s stone face
Our first stop is the five-ratha (chariot) site. Each of these magnificent wheel-less constructions is incised with statues of gods, goddesses and other motifs.
in between / two monolithic temples / a holy bull at rest
summer sun: / enduring selfie after selfie / the granite elephant
Presently, we make our way to one of the Shore Temples, the only one in fact that has not already been swallowed by the sea. Archaeological surveys in the Bay of Bengal have found the remains of most of the others. The majesty of these Pallava creations can be felt in the stone carvings and detailed reliefs of the two-towered structure that still stands close by the breaking surf.
dragonflies hover / in a scent of fresh-cut grass –- / monsoon, faraway
Finally, we find ourselves confronted by the open-air magnificence of a giant sculpted rock-face, which includes depictions of the Descent of the Ganges and of Arjuna’s Penance, both well-known tales from Hindu mythology.
breezeless noon / by the rock-relief: / the juice seller / has drawn a crowd
Notes: – click on either picture to enlarge
– more information about Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu, India can be found here:
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/249/
Retro Street
Probably the most popular of the haiku (actually, a senryu) composed last summer on Hailstone’s ginko (composition stroll) to Nakazaki-cho, an old-fashioned district near Umeda, Osaka, was the one by Akira Kibi beginning with the line ‘retro street’. Anna Shershnyova’s video artist husband, Denis Galushka, who was with us on that occasion, has now made a cool short (14 secs.) video in b/w based on Akira’s poem. It has been being shown on our new Instagram site during the past few days, so I thought I should now share the link. This is one of Hailstone’s first haiku videos, so we are keen to get some feedback. Please leave comments or likes at either place. Thanks.
Tito featured this month at Triveni’s Haibun Gallery
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Icebox has just featured a haibun by K. Ramesh, a Chennai poet. We also appreciated Geethanjali Rajan joining us a while back as a contributor to Icebox. Now, India’s largest English haiku site, Triveni Haikai India, under the overall supervision of Kala Ramesh (no relation of K. Ramesh), will be posting a haibun feature on Tito (Stephen Gill), including snippets of a lengthy interview. Each week another haibun or two and a few more snippets of interview will go up. The first one or two are already up there.
Meanwhile, there is a lively comments section for others to make their remarks or rise to the writing challenges thrown at them by the two Haibun Gallery editors this time, Shalini Pattabiraman, with whom Tito judged last years’s San Francisco International Haibun Contest, and Vidya Shankar. If interested to read a few of Tito’s haibun and what he has to say on his own writing journey and the four-line form, haiqua, please check it out any time this month or during the first half of July. Thereafter, it will be archived.
6 June feature, including Dimension Box and A Visit to Ghandrung
https://www.trivenihaikai.in/post/the-haibun-gallery-6thjune-2024-stephen-gill-featured-poet
13 June feature, including The Premier’s Hand
https://www.trivenihaikai.in/post/the-haibun-gallery-13thjune-2024-tito-stephen-gill-featured-poet
20 June feature, including A Reverie of Kings
https://www.trivenihaikai.in/post/the-haibun-gallery-20thjune-2024-tito-stephen-gill-featured-poet
27 June feature, including Scottish Journey
https://www.trivenihaikai.in/post/the-haibun-gallery-27thjune-2024-tito-stephen-gill-featured-poet
Backwaters: a haibun by K. Ramesh
The dawn is bluish still. Pelicans and painted storks fly over us, and the back water is teeming with life. Once in a while a fish leaps up and dives back into the water. As the boat moves slowly, he shares with me sea stories. Suddenly we notice a stretch of pink in the distance.
‘There they are!’, he says in a hushed voice. As we go closer, we see them. Some are standing tall and preening themselves, and the others, with their heads upside down, are eating critters. The dawn light accentuates the colour on their bodies.
finger on shutter…
the blur of pink turns
into flamingos
Bubbling Waters
On 19 May sixteen Hailstone poets gathered to visit a unique community on the western shores of Lake Biwa. The village of Harie (針江), sheltered by the Hira mountain range, is fed by an underground stream that filters upward into the settlement. Each house in Harie is blessed with its own source of pure water, contained in stone basins known as kabata (川端). The water, used for washing food and cooking, is patrolled by large fish which may become treasured family members.
We began our visit with a fine lunch at Hinata restaurant, followed by a guided tour of the watery village amid a gentle drizzle that only added to the moist and mysterious atmosphere. Finally, we assembled at Racine Inn to compose the following linked verse.
sabaki – David McCullough
shuhitsu – Mayumi Kawaharada
bubbling waters
wind to the inland sea —
a high, grey sky
David
carp swim upstream
eating leftovers
Tomiko
utility pole
broken at the middle —
rippled reflections
Akihiko
faint night lights
through the old village
Ayako
still there —
sound of weaving
in the abandoned factory
Akishige
pale windows hang
on a climbing vine
Anna
in the well
talking in whispers
a koi and a turtle
Yaeno
we came to become fish
and so … it rains
Tito
thirsty flowers —
the canal
just out of reach
Margarite
in the chef’s sooty oven
glowing embers
Akihiko
a deserted road
leads into town —
scent of roses
Mayumi
apple blossoms
glisten on green moss
Kyoko
the man who talks to us
of pure, pure water —
his eyes are blue
Tito
dancing pebbles
in a cold, clear spring
Mayumi
raindrops form
concentric circles —
neon weeds
Jun
touching the ancient tree
… and listening
Akishige
Welcome
We meet once again
my dear viola player …
under cherry blooms
Sosui
The village tannoy declares
something about shunning them –
a spring monkey troupe
Tito
How I long to see
baby swallows in their nest –
bulging scarlet throats!
Sosui
The day you come to stay …
the first swallows, too
arrive in Asuka
Tito
February & March in Haruna
Tito has helped me select a few from the haiku series I composed in Haruna, Gunma during February and March this year. I hope you might like some of them.
Nobuyuki Yuasa (Sosui)
野良猫も今日はのんびり日を浴びる
A stray cat feeling
carefree today, blissfully
basking in warm sun
立ちたるも伏したるも梅咲き出でる
Standing or sprawling,
the plum trees have all begun
to blossom at once!
味噌汁に蕗を散らせは春匂う
Chopped butterbur shoots –
sprinkle them into your soup
and spring scent arises
春の滝ネットの旅であまた見る
Net-surfing in March:
in a jiffy I can appraise
so many spring falls!
Todaiji Backyards
Late in the morning on March 16, eighteen haiku poets – and their little prince, Glyeb – come together at Tegai-mon, the west gate of Todaiji Temple, built in the mid-eighth century.
Into his rucksack
a toddler
packing spring light
… (Yaeno Azuchi)
We begin strolling around the backyards of the Great Buddha Hall.
They sunbathe
behind the Great Temple ―
naked trees
… (Akishige Ida)
andromeda blooms
at Daibutsu pond —
longing for my daughter
… (Sydney Solis)
finicky tourists:
a world ago and now
two deer chewing sprouts
… (Anna Shershnyova)
white-fluffy-tailed fawn
already makes eyes at tourists –
senbe dreaming
… (Ursula Maierl)
The Shoso-in, the Nara emperors’ 8th century treasure house, made entirely of timber in the ancient azekura (log house) style, is unfortunately closed for the day, but at least we catch a glimpse of its long, tiled roof.
The Imperial Storehouse
takes a holiday:
the deer work hard
… (Hiroko Nakakubo)
Shosoin –
deer in tree shade
grazing Time itself
… (Shigeko Kibi)
A Persian vase
in the ancient storehouse:
dry westerly
from the Silk Road
… (Ayako Kurokawa)
remnant
of a cedar torch
left in a monk’s yard –
spring is nigh
… (Eiko Mori)
Proceeding to Nigatsu-do (February Hall) between aged clay walls, we climb steep stone steps. At this hall, Todaiji’s solemn rite, Shuni-e (popularly called ‘Omizutori’), has been performed every February of the old lunar calendar since 752 CE. This year’s rite was completed just two days before. In one corner, there is a box of charred cryptomeria twigs from the heavy blazing torches that had been run by monks along the great wooden balustrade outside. Today, people are taking these twigs home as talismans.
Under a blue sky
the scenery unfolds –
February Hall
… (Akito Mori)
Soft spring breeze –
after the Water-drawing Rites
burnt scent
of cedar torches
… (Jun Tsutsumi)
In my mind
sharing the breeze
with ancient noblemen –
Nigatsu-do veranda
… (Akira Kibi)
We then enter the adjacent Hokke-do (also known as Sangatsu-do, March Hall), completed in 733 CE, and find ourselves facing the great gilt Fukusenkaku Kannon, with its associates and guards, all National Treasures made using the kanshitsu (‘dry lacquer’) technique.
Remains of gold
shine dimly
in the chiaroscuro hall –
statues grown old
… (Jeanne)
The third eye
of the golden Kannon
half open –
spring has come
… (Kazue Gill)
Most of us then go to see Todaiji Temple’s 26-ton Great Bell, one of Japan’s oldest and largest, suspended nearby in its own bell tower.
Reverberations of the Bell –
subtle overtones
of imaginary ringing
… (Kyoko Nozaki)
as if locked in a cave
standing under
the temple bell –
spring darkness
… (Tomiko Nakayama)
Now, it’s high time for lunch, and soon we have assembled on the second floor of Yama no Café, looking out on grassy Wakakusa Hill. In his welcome remarks, Tito mentions Basho’s haiku composed back in 1685 inside Nigatsu-do during Shuni-e.
水とりや氷の僧の沓の音
Mizutori ya / kohri no sou no/ kutsu no oto
The Water-drawing Ceremony –
that freezing sound of monks
shuffling in their clogs
After lunch, an improvised book stall is set up, with Jeanne and Tomiko serving – an unusual opportunity to buy, at a 30% discount, many of the past 20-odd years of Hailstone Publications. Of 34 books brought, all but 5 are sold. We then share some of the haiku composed on the day while sipping tea. Finally we disperse, still not a cloud in the luminous spring sky. One or two linger, to take a stroll on close-cropped Wakakusa-yama …
The box of poetry books, sold –
folding it flat
and sliding on that
down the grassy slope!
… (Tito)
hailstonehaiku insta account launched in time for the cherry blossom
Right on the cusp between winter and spring, Hailstone Haiku Circle has launched an Instagram page! We begin with a haipho (haiku photograph) of cherry blossom in snow. Special thanks are due to Jun Tsutsumi and Anna Shershnyova for their collaboration with getting this started. Branko Manojlovic will also become an editor. This team will decide what to feature, as well as monitor comments and answer enquiries. Please visit and follow us here: https://www.instagram.com/hailstonehaiku/
from the Icebox inbox – 56
Icebox 