fireflies again

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watching fireflies ...
the first, the second and then
ALL OF THEM !



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Fireflies (hotaru) (Japan)


MORE !
my fireflies haiku



Read my Haiku Archives 2007


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Fireflies

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shizukesa ya tani o mau no wa hotaru dake

静けさや　谷を舞うのは　蛍だけ



this quietude -
only fireflies dancing
in the valley



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Fireflies (hotaru) (Japan)



MORE !
my fireflies haiku



Read my Haiku Archives 2007


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almost missed

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looking for fireflies ...
I almost miss
the dramatic night sky



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A friend suggested to leave out the"dramatic" .

I am rather fond of adjectives lately ... grin...

this was not just any dark night sky, it was one with thunderclouds racing in many layers of gray like spotlights and would make a haiku in itself to discribe it.
I want to make sure, using the adjective, that it was a very special night sky and I did not realize it in the beginning because I was focussed looking below in my valley for the fireflies. Only when I looked up I saw what I was missing there ...


looking for fireflies ...
I almost miss
the night sky

that gives me a much more quiet evening which I experience most often, but not the drama of the other night.

Maybe another adjective would work ?
Then he suggested:


looking for fireflies
I almost miss
the thunderclouds


thanks so much for your help, B.


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. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2008


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silent night

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dark night ... a firefly flies over my roof two days later dark night ... three fireflies brighten my valley again two days later silent night ... the delicate shimmer of fireflies

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At first I was tempted to write ... a silent night
to make sure it was not THE Silent Night ... spelled mostly with capital S and N.

It is like a Christmas present to see these thousands of fireflies in the remote valley in complete silence, up and down, back and forth ... and we can enjoy it for about two, three weeks if there is no rain at night ..




. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2008


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no fireflies

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every night I go outside and check for them, but tonight was special



no fireflies -
only moonlight reflects
on camellia leaves




It looked as if they were hiding in the bush,
changing with my every move.



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. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2009


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darkness between

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googeling ...
the darkness between
my ignorance




quote
the darkness between the stars
is a tone poem/haiku in which I tried to invoke the darkness/void/loneliness of deep space; out where there is nothing. 99.9999+ percent of the universe is an empty lonely place.

while I was writing this piece I imaged myself floating in the darkness of deep space billions of miles from any other being, billons of miles from even just another object, with just the faint dots of stars everywhere in the black void.
source : (2005) by Ed Sharpe





inspired by some friends poems ...


starry night the darkness between fireflies

Bill Kenney
(Published in Acorn #20)

source : www.magnapoets.com




googeling ...
"the darkness between" haiku

Mason Jennings The darnkess between the fireflies

Waking in the Darkness Between Us

the darkness between the stars

In the Darkness Between Worlds

"The Darkness Between" by Jeremy Minton

"The Darkness Between You And Me"

and so on googeling ...

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. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2009


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enlightenment

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staring into darkness -
the enlightenment of
just one firefly



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"A haiku is the expression of a temporary enlightenment
in which we see into the life of things."

R.H. Blyth

.............................

temporary enlightenment -
just a bunch of
fireflies


A bit more on Zen and such ...
.. zen-and-haiku/gabi



candle night -
is the spider looking for
enlightenment ?

Check it out HERE !




MORE !
my fireflies haiku


Read my Haiku Archives 2007


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WKD - ZEN, Buddhism and Haiku

[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO TOP . ]
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Zen and Haiku

More knowledge people have written about this subject.
Here are just a few of my own musings and a few links on the subject.




Buddha meditates –
the hungry folk
just want food

Five Buddhas and one Tanuki
© Photo and Haiku by Gabi Greve


I have a museum with artefacts of Bodhidaruma, the founder of Zen Buddhistm.

The Daruma Museum, Japan

Daruma and Haiku



And read about the Japanese ZEN temple Eihei-Ji.


The Zendo in Kamakura : Sanboo kyoodan Zen
and the Way of the New Religions
by Robert H. Sharf

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“A haiku is the expression of a temporary enlightenment
in which we see into the life of things.”

R.H. Blyth


Well, this is just one opinion.


enlightenment ...
all it takes is
HAIKU ???


or maybe

HAIKU !
all it takes is
enlightenment


temporary enlightenment -
just a bunch of
fireflies


. . . . . .


en LIGHT enment
just how LIGHT
can it be ?

anonymous

. . . . . .




enlightenment -
my Daruma squeezed
into a lightbulb

Gabi Greve, January 2011


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Zen and Haiku from my Gallery


Zen Riddles with BEE ..

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Haiku and Zen Moments ... some fun



KOAN and Haiku (01) .. 公案と俳句
KOAN and Haiku (02) .. Dreams 夢
KOAN and Haiku (03) .. Original face and Immortality


Quietude and the Galactic Ant 　静けさと蟻のクシャミ
..... The Sound of Wind, Sound of Clouds (essay)
風の音、雲の音、お茶の音


Stone Buddhas .. 石仏

Voice of Buddha .. .. Frogs Farting :o) 。。蛙の屁


. Wordless Poem, Wordless Smile 　



Carpet Meditations 2007





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The Haiku Moment

Composition of a poem must be done in an instant, like a woodcutter felling a huge tree or a swordsman leaping at a dangerous enemy. It is also like cutting a ripe watermelon with a sharp knife or like taking a large bite at a pear.
Matsuo Basho

Basho here is referring to that sudden insight into the hidden nature of things which he called "inspiration." While he certainly revised his own poems and those of his students, his meaning here may be taken to be that if the poem does not contain inspiration at the beginning, does not capture the true impact of a moment, then it will fail. Later revision may perfect the expression, but only by composing spontaneously can one learn to grasp the flash of inspiration as it happens

Haiku in English
by Barbara Louise Ungar


Translating the haiku moment ... back to Japanese :
haiku no shunkan ?　俳句の瞬間 ?
Not a word commonly used in Japanese.


The AHA MOMENT ... more of my musings !!!


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quote
“Notes on Self-Transcendence East and West:
Jorge Guillén and Haiku”
by Rupert Allen

During the second half of this century we have seen an enormous growth in the literature on self-transcendence. The phenomena associated with “centered,” non-ego awareness have been described in a number of fields including ethnology, depth psychology, comparative religion, parapsychology, and the vast literature on meditative techniques.
...
Particularly relevant to our understanding of the seer as poet (rather than as prophet) is the classical haiku, the poetry of Zen consciousness, for here we have the deliberate esthetic cultivation of transcendental reality, resting on the solid theoretical foundation of Zen Buddhism.
That we Westerners are generally oblivious to the existence of the “other” world is indicated by the fact that we do not know how to read haiku without special training in altered consciousness. Once this training is undergone the content of the haiku becomes accessible, and the impressive world of Japanese beauty is seen for the miracle that it is.
source : terebess.hu DOC


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quote
Basho, thought by many Japanese to be their finest haiku writer and greatest poet, lived from 1644 to 1694. Like almost all noted haiku writers he knew Zen, practicing discipline under the master Butcho in Kashima, with whom, according to Dr. D. T. Suzuki, he had the following exchange:

Butcho:
How are you getting along these days?

Basho:
Since the recent rain moss is greener than ever.

Butcho:
What Buddhism was there before the moss became green?

Resulting in enlightenment and the first of his best-known haiku:

Basho:
Leap-splash - a frog.

Whether or not they undertook discipline, haiku writers thought themselves living in the spirit of Zen, their truest poems expressing its ideals. To art lovers the appeal of haiku is not unlike that of a sumie (ink-wash) scroll by Sesshu, and many
haiku poets, like Buson, were also outstanding painters.

Zenists have always associated the two arts:
"When a feeling reaches its highest pitch," says Dr Suzuki, Zen´s most distinguished historian,
"we remain silent, even 17 syllables may be too many. Japanese artists ... influenced by the way of Zen tend to use the fewest words or strokes of brush to express their feelings. When they are too fully expressed no room for suggestion is possible, and suggestibility is the secret of the Japanese arts´.
Like a painting or rock garden, haiku is an object of meditation, drawing back the the curtain on essential truth. It shares with other arts qualities belonging to the Zen aesthetic - simplicity, naturalness, directness, profundity - and each poem has its dominant mood:

sabi (isolation),
wabi (poverty),
aware (impermanence) or
yugen (mystery).

If it is true that the art of poetry consists in saying important things with the fewest possible words, then haiku has a just place in world literature. The limitation of syllables assures terseness and concision, and the range of association in the finest examples is at times astonishing. It has the added advantage of being accessible:
a seasonal reference, direct or indirect, simplest words, chiefly names of things in dynamic relationships, familiar themes, make it understandable to most, on one level at least.

Zen Poetry: Let the Spring Breeze Enter
Lucien Stryk, Takashi Ikemoto
source : books.google.co.jp


. Zen Master Butchoo, Butchō 仏頂和尚 Butcho, Temple 雲岸寺 Ungan-Ji .
(1643– 1715)


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. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .


quote
Bashō and Religious Traditions

Of course the fact that Bashō chose not to become an official member of a religious tradition does not mean that those traditions are irrelevant. While he is not, for instance, a Buddhist in the conventional sense of the term, his world view and way of life exhibit certain Buddhistic qualities, only one of which can we mention here.
As we have seen, an important aspect of Buddhist thought is nonduality.

Nonduality applied even to the distinction between the deluded state and enlightenment, as seen in Buddhist phrases such as "enlightenment is found in the world of passions" (bonnô sunawachi bodai naru) and "the deluded mind is itself Buddha" (môjin soku butsu). The Zen master Dōgen is famous for insisting on the nonduality of means and end. For him, zazen is not a technique one engaged in for the purpose of achieving enlightenment, it was the enactment of enlightenment.

Bashō also experiences, in a unique way, the nonduality between imperfection and perfection and means and end. His travels are not like pilgrimages, which are temporary journeys directed toward a specific end. His wayfaring is endless: the journey itself is home.

... The nonduality of means and end extends to his attitude toward himself. Because his practice is never concluded, he sees himself as forever incomplete, like the asunarô tree, which appears to be the valuable cypress but is not.

"Tomorrow I will be a cypress!" an old tree in a valley once said. Yesterday has passed as a dream; tomorrow has not yet come. Instead of just enjoying a cask of wine in my life, I keep saying "tomorrow, tomorrow," securing the reproof of the sages.

sabishisa ya - Loneliness:
hana no atari - among the blossoms
asunarō - an asunarô

The name asunarô literally means "tomorrow I will become..." with the context implying "...a cypress." But the tree will never become a cypress, and Bashō will never complete his journey either. While in several passages Bashō exhibits self-denigration about his incompletion, ultimately this is not condemnation but realization: reality fundamentally is an endless journey with no climax or completion. But there is, perhaps, something of a Pure Land Buddhist tone in his self-recrimination and sense of imperfection, and the possible affinities between Pure Land and Bashō are worth careful attention.

While Bashō's mode of being is Buddhistic in some ways, they depart from traditional Buddhism in other ways. Buddhism began to lose its hold as the predominant religious tradition in the seventeenth century, and Bashō's departure from (and in some cases criticism of) Buddhism may be an example of this. The notion of karma, so important to medieval Buddhism, is absent in his works. In fact, early in The Record of a Weather-Exposed Skeleton Bashō encounters a situation that seems to be presented in a way that the reader expects a reference to karma: an abandoned baby by the roadside. After tossing the child some food and composing a mournful poem, he continues his speculation on the cause of the situation.
“Why did this happen? Were you hated by your father or neglected by your mother? Your father did not hate you, your mother did not neglect you. This simply is from heaven, and you can only grieve over your fate.” Traditional Buddhism would call for an explanation based on past lives that would affirm the cosmic justice of deserved suffering. For Bashō there is no cosmic justice in the normal sense, only the ever-present imminence of death shared by all wayfarers.

This passage is patterned very closely on the writings of the Taoist Chuang-Tzu, and Bashō's notion of fate is far closer to classical Taoism than it is to traditional Buddhism. In fact, Chuang Tzu is alluded to in his writings more often than any other religious thinker. Bashō's self-portrait has several Taoist aspects. The Chuang Tzu contains numerous images of wayfaring and flying as the ideal, especially in the first chapter, "Free and Easy Wandering." The Record of a Travel-Worn Satchel begins with a description of Bashō as a fûrabô, and the image in the first sentence is taken directly from The Chuang Tzu.

Among these hundred bones and nine holes there is something. For now let's call it "gauze in the wind" (fûrabô). Surely we can say it's thin, torn easily by a breeze. It grew fond of mad poetry long ago; eventually, this became its life work.
This life's work, he relates elsewhere, is quite "useless," a major theme in Chuang Tzu's writings.

Bashō, then, experiences life as an inheritor and participant in the meditational Buddhist, classical Taoist, and shamanistic yugyô hijiri traditions. Indeed he most likely saw them as three complementary streams, all of them parts of one religious complex of ideas, attitudes, and practices. This particular mode of being-in-the-world presents to the reader a sophisticated world view and way of life that becomes for us an ato, a trace of his life that we can appropriate in our particular way as we travel our own endless journey.

THE JOURNALS OF MATSUO BASHŌ
source : Barnhill


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Meditation - Dhyana

ZEN and Haiku - some thoughts
... more on the Haiku Moment (haiku no shunkan?)

ZEN and Haiku - short musing

ZEN and Zen-isch, McZen - Cold at Temple Eihei-Ji


EGO, Zen and Haiku
.......... Zen and the Art of Haiku. Ken Jones !!!!!



Words do not make a man understand;
You must get the man, to understand them.
ZENRIN KUSHU Poetry Collection 禅林句集 English


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. . . . . . . . . . . T A O


.. .. .. .. .. .. .. Tao, Dao and Haiku 道教と俳句
.. .. .. .. .. .. .. Tao of a useless tree 　

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External LINKS

Zen Poems and Haiku - A haiku selection from a 'non-zennist'


Zen and Haiku GOOGLE


Zen and Haiku YAHOO

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A Haibun

Leaving the noisy, busy city behind for a while, I go into the quiet museum to see an exhibit of zen portrait paintings. Entering the dimly lit galleries, I find myself in the midst of a gathering of sages!

Gazing intently around me, I soon enter into the spirit of things. I come down the mountain with Shakyamuni, both of us smiling, smiling from head to toe, smiling at the universe. I sit down next to Bohdidharma, determined to stay awakened, however long it takes, eyes unblinking! I wander aimlessly with Hotei, balancing my bag of stuff with my belly, laughing at nothing and everything, heedless of appearances. After a while, tired from all this traveling to distant times and places, I rest my head peacefully beside Hanshan's, the warm body of a sleeping tiger for our pillow, with not a care in the world!

Where today can you find such characters? I'd like to meet them.


fine spring day--
a bum dozes outside
the zen painting show


Larry Bole, April 2007

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I exist,
I only just exist here -
snow is falling

只居ればおるとて雪の降にけり
tada oreba oru tote yuki no furi ni keri

Kobayashi Issa, 1805
Tr. Gabi Greve


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ZEN is not the only form of Buddhism with an influence on culture, poetry and haiku.


"Henro Haiku " by pilgrims of Shikoku
There are even kigo with this phenomenon
Esoteric Buddhism　密教 and Kukai Kobo Daishi

. Henro Haiku 遍路俳句 .



Kobayashi Issa and his Pure Land Buddhism
. Kobayashi Issa (小林一茶) .

Pure Land Buddhism 浄土仏教
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !


Nichiren Buddhism 　日蓮宗　and related kigo
. Saint Nichiren 日蓮 .


and all the observance kigo related to
Buddhist festivals and religious persons

. Observance SAIJIKI .

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Not everything is ZEN in haikuland.

. Zooka, zouka, zōka 造化 zoka
The Creative Power and Basho .


BACK TO
Haiku Theory Archives

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WKD - Peach blossoms hanamomo

花桃や flower peach blossoms - the old farmer counts them one by one

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Hanamomo 花桃, is a species grown to enjoy the red flowers. The fruit are rather small and negligible.
My neighbour planted this tree more than 10 years ago and counts the flowers each year ... like counting the years he will soon spend in eternity.

My neighbour is a descentent from the Heike clan, who fled to our moutains many hundred years ago. He still carries the character HEI (pei)　平 for HEIKE in his name, like most of our neighbours here.
He also planted many Genpei Peach trees, look at some here and read more below.

- - - Spring in my Valley Ohaga, Gabi Greve - - -



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. . . . . . . . . kigo for late spring

flowers of the peach tree, momo no hana
桃の花 もものはな

white peach blossoms, shiramomo 白桃（しらもも）
red peach blossoms, himomo 緋桃（ひもも）

orchard for peach trees, momobatake 桃畑（ももばたけ）
..... toorin 桃林（とうりん）、tooen 桃園（とうえん）

looking at the peach blossoms, momomi 桃見（ももみ）
for cherries, we have HANAMI 花見.

village within peach tree orchards, momo no mura
桃の村（もものむら）
Some in Yamanashi province are really spectacular in their blossom clouds.

Lodging with a view to peach blossoms, momo no yado
桃の宿（もものやど）


Genpei Momo 源平桃（げんぺいもも）
..... "Sun and Moon Peach Blossoms", jitsugetsutoo 日月桃(じつげつとう
A mixed breed with white and pink flowers.

Genpei refers to the warring clans of the Genji and the Heike.
Genpei Feud and the Fireflies in Haiku
Genpei War / Wikipedia



Click on the PHOTO to look at more !


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咲き乱す桃の中より初桜
saki midasu momo no naka yori hatsu-zakura / hatsuzakura

From among the peach-trees
"Blooming everywhere",
The fists cherry blossoms.
Tr. Eri Takase


Written when Basho was about 41 to 51.

The wild mountain cherries 山桜 and Yoshino cherries 吉野桜 at his time bloomed a bit later.
Nowadays we have the early blossoming cherry varieties of Somei-yoshino and others.


Among peach blossoms
Blooming wind, I already see
The year's first cherry blossoms!
Tr. Oseko


With a haiku sweet from Iga Ueno !
source : kikyou0123


MORE - about "first things" by
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .



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深川や桃の中より汐干狩
Fukagawa ya momo no naka yori shiohigari

Fukagawa !
through the peach blossoms
people are gathering shells


. Kobayashi Issa　小林一茶　in Fukagawa, Edo .


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商人を吼る犬ありももの花
akindo o hoyuru inu ari momo no hana

at the merchants
there is a dog barking -
plum blossoms

- or in more natural English

there is a dog
barking at the merchants -
plum blossoms
Tr. Gabi Greve


. WKD : Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村 in Edo .



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Easter Morning:
the peach tree has
resurrected its blossoms

Larry Bole
Happy Haiku Forum 2010


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. SAIJIKI - Plants in Spring .


[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]
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icicles and Kisagata

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cold sunshine -
the icicles refuse
to melt

rondo in my valley -
now snowfall
now sunshine


Morning minus seven centigrade
Mid-day minus three centigrade



next morning, Monday 31

minus nine -9℃　



kylmä auringon paiste -
jääpuikot kieltäytyvät
sulamasta


My Icicle haiku in Finnish, translated by
Juhani Tikkanen
(facebook)


. . . . .


and this is how America feels in the last few days, too much snow

Snow My Gosh
Snomageddon
Snowpocalypse
Snowtorious
Snowzilla

all snover again

Mega Snowstorm Pounds Moves East with Snow, Ice, Freezing Temperatures

A colossal winter storm dropping snow and ice from Texas to Maine has left two thirds of the nation facing downed power lines, shuttered highways and thousands of airport cancellations.
source : abcnews.go.com


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drinking at the lake
first it is sunny
then it rains

SU DONG-PO (1037-1101)


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象潟の欠をかぞへて鳴千鳥
kisagata no kake wo kazoete naku chidori

counting the remains
of Kisa Lagoon...
a singing plover

This haiku has the prescript: "Into the bowels of the earth." Kisa Lagoon (Kisagata) was ravaged by an earthquake in Sixth Month, 1804. The effect, according to Shinji Ogawa, was that the seabed was raised and the "beautiful scenery like a miniature archipelago suddenly became dry land."
Tr. and comment, David Lanoue


象潟や蛍まぶれの早苗舟
kisagata ya hotaru mabure no sanae fune

Kisagata lagoon -
fireflies sparkle
around the rice-planting boat

. Kobayashi Issa 　小林一茶 .


When I visited Kisakata in Akita, it was not a lagoon any more, an earthquake in 1804 had lifted the ground and many former islands where standing above the ground.
The landscape is most impressive, often compared to the islands of Matsushima.






象潟や 雨に西施が ねぶの花
kisakata ya ame ni seishi ga nebu no hana

Kisagata lagoon,
in the rain Xishi,s eyes are closed
blossoms of the silk tree
Tr. Massih


A flowering silk tree in the sleepy rain of Kisakata
Reminds me of Lady Seishi
In sorrowful lament
Tr. Nobuyuki Yuasa

Matsuo Basho


. Comments of Facebook

Matsuo Basho - Oku no Hosomichi
. Tsuruoka and Kisakata 鶴岡　と　象潟 (きさかた).


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. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2011

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full moon

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満月や　それは綺麗が　蛍なし。。。



full moon night -
how very beautiful but
no fireflies



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Read my Haiku Archives 2007


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White Flower

Candle Night キャンドルナイト candle night - is the spider looking for enlightenment ? . . . . . candle night - the beetles are having some fun in the dark

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Candle Night, KIGO


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candle night -
is the spider looking for
enlightenment ?


Dear Gabi,
I like this very much, and have a question.
We get drilled into us so much not to use personification and I know you're very experienced in haiku. When do you decide to make an exception (you personally)?


Dear Friend,
I try to avoid personifications and anthropomorphism as much as I can, since I believe haiku should state the objective observance, not the subjective judgement about it. I only use it when the situation really calls for it.


Here is the story to the above haiku.

It is candlenight in Japan.
A few good friends have gathered around the old pond, with the odd frog jumping in once in a while too for good measure.
In the darkness, we enjoy the conversation, then the silence, then talk again.

Plop, another frog. Silence deepens.

A firefly zips by and I tell my friends about this haiku, written a few days ago in some haiku forum after a discussion on the subject

temporary enlightenment -
just a bunch of
fireflies

Everybody chuckles ... yea, yea, the follies of us human beings ...
And silence again in the darkness.

Staring toward the white calla lily, a small spider makes its way toward the innermost flower parts. Slowly, stopping, sensing what ?

Everyone gets focussed on the spider and then another little beetle on the white flower next to it. Candlelight makes this scene especially unworldly. Like under a giant spotlight, all we see now is the spider.

And then someone asks:

Is the spider looking for
enlightenment ?

...


So my particular haiku is not really a personification, but a report about a situation during that candlenight.



Anthropomorphism - Pro and Con

Read my Haiku Archives 2007


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first firefly

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初蛍月もちょっと顔をだす


first firefly -
the moon also shows
his face





Fireflies (hotaru) ... KIGO


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. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2010

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