2/27/2009
late snow
morning surprise -
deep frost covers
the window panes
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late snow -
the bamboo bows
deeply
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Some friends are quarreling in unexpected ways.
And snow keeps falling in the valley ...
. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2009
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1/25/2009
little icicles
midday sunshine -
the icicles fall
with a PING
We are in another cold wave,
minus 4 centigrade this morning.
The snow dripps slowly from the roof, forming little icicles of about 5 cm length on each indenture of the tin. They hang in there like the teeth of a saw.
When I was out for a moment, I heared a PING of something hitting metal, one more PING ...
The icicles fell one by one and hit the metal grit of the water drainage,
a natural organ playing the PINGS ...
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MORE
My Icicle haiku
. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2009
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1/12/2009
icycle
remembering you - the sparkle of this last icicle this icicle - there is no shortcut to enlightenment |
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On January 15, the cold spell is slowly getting better,
ONLY MINUS THREE CENTIGRADE
global warming -
the cold outside
reminds me
Ice, Icicle (koori, tsurara) KIGO
. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2009
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1/10/2009
snow sky snow moon
snow -
there is blue in the sky
and there is gray
caught in the white of a snow moon
caught in the night of a snow moon
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Full Moon on January 10, 2009
not set
in her ways--
snow moon
George
If skies are clear Saturday, go out at sunset and look for the giant moon rising in the east. It will be the biggest and brightest one of 2009, sure to wow even seasoned observers.
the orbit is not a perfect circle. One portion is about 31,000 miles (50,000 km) closer to our planet than the farthest part, so the moon's apparent size in the sky changes. Saturday night (Jan. 10) the moon will be at perigee, the closest point to us on this orbit.
It will appear about 14 percent bigger in our sky and 30 percent brighter than some other full moons during 2009, according to NASA. (A similar setup occurred in December, making that month's full moon the largest of 2008.)
source : http://news.yahoo.com/s/spacce ...
snow moon
behind the old tree ...
what a sight !
Gabi Greve, Happy Haiku Forum
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. WKD : The MOON and its kigo .
. . . Read my Haiku Archives
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1/03/2009
snow snow
大雪や仏の光背光おり ooyuki ya hotoke no koohai hikari ori so much snow ! the halo of Buddha is sunshine snow on the persimmons |
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. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2008
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12/26/2008
snow over night
snow over night -
should I get the shovel or
the camera?
learn from the pine ...
today I learn from
the snow
just one snowflake -
to grow
to dance
to touch your hands
to melt
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do'nt aks me -
Buddha's hands carry
snow
my life like snow
in Buddha's hands -
right now
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December 26, 2008
And it is pretty COLD too ...
"Learn from the Pine" .. ..
the twisted meaning
of words of wisdom
. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2008
MORE ABOUT
Gautama Buddha in my Garden
with Karl the Froggie and other scenes
Learning from the PLUM !
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Thanks to Billie Dee for this composition !
Present from Billie
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み仏の身に引受て時雨哉
mihotoke no mi ni hiki-ukete shigure kana
Buddha's venerable body
takes it on himself ...
sleet in winter
Kobayashi Issa
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11/20/2008
Hatsuyuki
hatsuyuki ya 初雪や
first snow ...
two crow families fight
for a place in the sky
first snow
on red leaves ...
global warming
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A cold spell has gripped Japan, much too early for the season.
Daily high not above 5 degrees centigrade ...
and a cover of white on the red leaves and the yellow gingko !
And these crows are constantly "barking" in the sky, chasing each other, fighting for a space to stay in our valley
November 19, 2008
The cold spell continues, white morning again today, yesterday was a warm plus four centigrade ...
November 20, 2008
. WKD : first snow, hatsu yuki 初雪 .
. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2008
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3/05/2008
snow and sunshine
snowflakes
dancing in sunshine -
a change of seasons
steep roof -
the snow melts
before it slips
(Usually, the snow slips down in noisy avalanches from the roof!)
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MORE
. . . SNOW in this winter !
. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2008
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2/28/2008
diamond morning
morning meditation - the short lifespan of snow patterns day moon light and shadow and here is ME taking photos |
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. . . Check my PHOTO ALBUM from here to nr. 22
. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2008
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2/27/2008
pink morning
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薄紅の大垪和の朝や言葉なし
pale pink morning in Ohaga
without words
rosaroter Morgen
in Ohaga ...
ohne Worte
Nakamura Sakuo
Thank you, Sakuo san!
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My Photo ALBUM of this morning
Start from here to Nr. 37
. . . Read my SNOW Haiku of this winter 2007/2008
. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2008
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2/26/2008
graves in silence
morning prayers - the graves of the ancestors in deep silence |
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My Haiku Friend Allison wrote
The only thing that caught my eye and took it away from the graves is the slightly yellow 'thing' to the left of the main tree, by the driveway. I don't know what it is, but if you cloned it out, it wouldn't be there to distract me. I know it's a 'little thing', but I really want to focus on the headstones . . . and the rest of your photo (with the gorgeous lighting) pulls my focus right where it belongs.
So she made this lovely haiga for me !
|
Dear Allison,
thanks for your great effort.
It looks terrific and it made me think ...
I try to write haiku about WHAT IS without judgement and my photos show WHAT IS without interference and retouching (is that the right word?)
Japanese landscape is full of wires and electricity poles and all that, just this morning (speak of coincidence) was an article in the Japan times about
UGLY JAPAN (see below)
When I take our landscape photos, I try to avoid these wires and poles, but sometimes it just can not be done ... so I guess it my modern haiku reality to live with them.
If I write normal poetry and paint a landscape, I am free to transform it as I please, but with my haiku, there is a difference.
I hang on to external and internal shasei, sketching from nature and the inspiration of moment.
Thanks for bringing this home once again.
And thanks for showing the "joys and dangers" of interferring with a photo.
What is reality? quite a question now for me !
morning prayers ..
the fence poles and the graves
in deep silence
GABI
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© Japan Times, KEVIN RAFFERTY, Feb.28, 2008
Why's Japan grown so ugly?
By KEVIN RAFFERTY
YUNOMINE, Wakayama Pref. —
My brother wanted to create a new room in the loft of his house in an English provincial city, actually Kingston upon Hull (population 250,000), a place of passing interest to Japanese because two centuries ago it was one of the world's biggest whaling ports. Today, the whales are still present, singing their haunting songs in a museum to the city's maritime history.
The local council refused him permission because the room would have required the insertion of a new window, and that would have ruined the uniform roofline of the avenue where he lives.
I was thinking of this when traveling recently from Osaka to the onsen town of Yunomine, an exhilarating journey along through the mountains of the Kii Peninsula. This is Japan's historic heartland, where the gods had their origins, and these routes have been a place of pilgrimage for a thousand years, through which people have sought self-discovery, purification and healing.
Winter had laid its icy fingers across the land, and the green hillsides were liberally dusted with snow. From time to time we diced with the ice on the narrow old Kumano road and we made several detours on foot along the ancient Kumano way, which meanders up and down the uneven contours of the hills.
But the journey was spoiled by the dreadful depredations that human beings have visited on a beautiful land. Even on the ancient footpath, it is hard to get away from the despoliation of modern life, with the natural shades of green sliced up by silver wires held together by the ugly modern gods of electricity pylons.
On the old road, carefully engineered to follow the twists and turns of the contours of the natural environment, the encroachment of what is termed civilization comes threateningly closer. In places it is hard to hear the birds and insects, let alone the gurgling of mountain streams or the sounds of the wind talking to the grass and trees, above the roar of traffic on the modern road.
That road — and more so the toll roads that go directly through from Osaka to Kumano — shows the contempt that modern Japanese bureaucrats, and their political and corporate construction allies, have for the natural environment. They have bulldozed remorselessly across the countryside and gouged deep wounds through the hills. Where nature has hit back with the threat of landslides, the construction companies have tried to suffocate it by plastering hillsides with concrete.
Alex Kerr in "Dogs and Demons" (2001) documented the grip of the deadly concrete disease on Japan, with 97 percent of rivers dammed and 60 percent of the coastline covered in concrete, not to speak of 43 percent of native forests replanted with allergy-bearing and wildlife-free cedar plantations.
Where is the traditional Japanese love of nature, beauty, gentleness, nuance? All damned and dammed with concrete.
But it gets worse as you venture into remote rural areas, which in other countries offer a refuge from the pressures of hectic modern life. Kerr complained of Japan's "Hello-Kitty-fied" culture. Hello Kitty has a cuteness, but Japan's rural life is plain plug ugly. In every small town, ugliness is rampant: bright signs with mindless slogans; garish advertisements for pachinko parlors; giant banners for used cars; loud screaming posters for every tin-pot business; and of course wires everywhere, as if the spiders are taking over.
Try to take a photograph of what should be a picturesque place. You find wires everywhere, of course: at high and low level, from afar or close to, every view is spoiled. Tasteful traditional wooden houses sit next to tasteless modern monstrosities; exposed metal and plastic pipes scar the scene, some of them leaking; everyone and anyone can put up a banner; concrete is ubiquitous, some of it masquerading as wood; and ugly robotic machines parade the main street dispensing cigarettes or soft drinks. Shops sell over-wrapped over-priced tacky souvenirs (but no bath salts that I could see).
Anyone who has been to Kyoto or Nara or on the road between them is assaulted by the horrors of Japanese town planning.
What is worse is how ugliness has penetrated Japan's historic heartland, and no one seems to care.
Mikako Hayashi, associate professor of restorative dentistry and endodontology at Osaka University, remembers her return to Japan after 16 months doing research at England's Manchester University and exploring the historic spots there. She says: "As the aircraft banked on its final approach, I looked out of the window to see the countryside of my homeland — and it looked as if some demon giant had tipped a huge garbage can over the landscape."
This is surely an appalling thing to say about a country whose people have traditionally taken great pride in being in harmony with nature. But Hayashi believes that there is no point merely in lamenting modern ugliness; she suggests that it is time to do something about it.
In England there is a keenly fought annual competition for the Best Kept Village. It is time for Japan to do something similar, Hayashi suggests: "Japan should be more ambitious: choose the prettiest or most picturesque village and town. Give points for a pleasant skyline, for special features, for good taste or neatness according to a scale: deduct points, say five points off for offensive advertising, 20 points off for a pachinko parlor on main street, 30 or more for ugly buildings that do not blend."
She is being too ambitious. If such a competition were held today on such a basis, the winner would probably be a place with a score of minus several hundred.
You do not have to go all the way of Britain, where one department of a London council insisted that a diseased cherry tree must be chopped down, but another said if it were cut the owner would be fined for altering the skyline.
Hayashi's idea would help develop tourism, both domestic and foreign, and — in a small but important way — teach Japanese to value their precious land and environment. Newly attractive towns and villages may be able to attract back people and jobs. Smothering the land in concrete wastes money and kills ideas, ideals and beauty. Eventually, maybe, the vital message can filter through from the ordinary people of Japan back to the ishiatama bureaucrats and politicians.
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More of my SNOW HAIKU
SNOW in Paradise
Internal shasei ...
Environment and emotion: keijo (keijoo 景情 けいじょう)
. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2008
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2/25/2008
rosebuds in snow
monochrome pattern rosebuds in snow - the wait for spring continues |
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Rosebuds ALBUM till Nr. 10
MORE of my Roses and Haiku
Roses in Paradise
. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2008
rose rose snow rose bud rose buds
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2/24/2008
heavy snow again - yajiri
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Check my ALBUM from Nr. 1 to Nr. 30 to see this splendid winter day.
Snowed In ... ALBUM
Monday Morning, 25
Still all white around, minus four in the morning ... and more snowmen in the weather forecast!
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The back of a farmhouse is often called
yajiri 屋尻 "bottom side of a house"
In mountainous regions this part can be very narrow and dangerous for mudslides.
In winter, snowslides from the slopes and the roof are a problem.
はつ雪の降り捨てある家尻哉
hatsu furi no sutete aru yajiri kana
a dumping ground
for the first snow...
my backyard
Kobayashi Issa
(Tr. David Lanoue)
If you do not get rid fast enough of the snow from the roof, it might break the beams that support the house.
And behind the house, where no sunshine reaches until next spring, it will pile up like a glacier . . .
snow avalanches behind my home in Okayama
. The Japanese House .
in all seasons
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. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2008
[ . BACK to DARUMA MUSEUM TOP . ]
[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]
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Snowstorm
meditating ... the Buddha's face in the snowstorm |
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Next morning, 40 cm of snow and more to come ...
Japan is engulfed with low pressure fields !
CLICK here to see me throught the next day !
More snow, more snow, more snow ...
Sunday all Day !
. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2008
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2/19/2008
walk toward sunshine
cats in love - his fast retreat toward the sunshine |
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. . . LOOK at my photo album from this monday morning
. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2008
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2/18/2008
short lifespan
morning meditation - the short lifespan of snow patterns |
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This morning meditation is a kind of Quigong, standing position 站椿功 , for about 10 minutes, during which time the snow was all gone.
For those who might need a more concrete imagery in the last two lines ...
snow patterns -
my cat passes
without a glance
. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2008
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