sunshine for two

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sunshine for two -
the cat curls his tail
around my leg



After a morning of minus 5 centigrade,
a sudden burst of warmness in the afternoon !
So we shared our special stone . . .



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. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2011

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Haiku Kun

Haiku kun - his green eyes reflect it all

. Haiku Kun Interview -
Japan Times May 2005 　



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do'nt be jealous -
I have nine tails
I have nine lives


Haiku kun flirting with LISA, the cat of Origa

... on facebook


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. Cats in Paradise ..
O-Tsu and Haiku-Kun お津と俳句くん


. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2010

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crazy cat

a crazy cat on the restaurant wall ... travelling in spring

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.ALBUM
Tottori May 2010


.ALBUM
Nagi and Chizu, May 2010




. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2010

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our cat is ill

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long cold night . . .
I play some Mozart
for my suffering cat



O-Tsu must have eaten some poison somewhere ... she came home around nine last night and started with terrible cramps and foam around her mouth ...
The cramps got worse, lasting about three minutes, every 30 minutes or so, she would stretch to almost double her length, then fold and bend to a tiny little ball, then tremble all over. Her breathing was fast and forceful, her pupils huge dark black circles ...

After a fit we would place her on the towel in a more comfortable position and watch her hard breath. Then the next fit distorted her small figure again ...

Around eight this morning, after a sleepless night, she had her last fit, then fell into a deep coma and we thought, well, this is it.

But after about one hour later, she opened her eyes again, this time here pupils were focused and she seemed a bit oriented and recognize us ... and then she becan to recover, sleeping most of the day.

Now (it is about six in the evening as I write this) she is still not oriented and whimpers a lot, but at least she has drunk some water and used her in-house toilet.

We hope she will recover more during this night.

Friday evening
Pray with us !


Saturday morning
Another night with watching over O-Tsu.
She is still afraid of all sounds and even her own shadow makes her shriek in fear and jump backwards. Finally she hides in a corner of the room and dozes off.

It was minus five degrees centigrade cold outside at night and we had to keep the house warm as best as we could.

This morning, at least she is oriented in the room and finds her place with the water, even jumps up on the table to drink.
This is going to be a slow process of recovering ...




Yakushi Nyorai Buddha of Healing



Saturday evening
What a day ! Cats are quite amazing.
O-Tsu spend most of the day sleeping (happily) in her bed, even licking her hair for a moment when she woke up.
Haiku-kun also finally relaxed (he had been quite upset with his mother's illness) and started snoring like usual.

We hope for a night to get some sleep!



Sunday morning
Sunshine !
A good night for all of us, and O-Tsu is now eating her food. She is still quite wobbely on her legs, but her sleep seems sound and her eyes are clear.
And her son Haiku kun has "talked" to her again, so it seems the cat family is fine again.



Cats in Paradise ..
O-Tsu and Haiku-Kun お津と俳句くん


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Feburary 24, 2010

This morning, Haiku kun was standing in front of his cat entrance outside, crying with pain and in utter confusion ...

Then he started with the cramps ... now he is in the cat cage in stupor, it is lunchtime by now, and he is very ill, biting his tongue and dripping blood from his moth.
Seems the same poison as O-Tsu.

Evening
Haiku had some bad cramps, then calmed down for the day and had a lick of food in the evening (now), so I hope to see him back on his feet tomorrow.




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. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2009


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furoshiki

bright summer day - a fancy cat jumps on my monitor

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Furoshiki (風呂敷) with Daruma



. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2009


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punctuation

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I like cooking cats and Haiku









As you know, my cat is named Haiku,
so how about joining me for lunch?


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This is of course just a joke,
a ruse to make you think about punctuation ... and the cut marker and cutting words (kireji) used in Japanese haiku.


The Cut and Cutting Words ... KIRE



. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2009


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spring sunshine

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spring sunshine
on the cat's belly -
mountain hermitage



Haiku kun is my best teacher.


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Cats in the Paradise Hermitage



. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2009


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Playing with Haiku

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playing with Haiku -
I get a whack
on my nose




Sometimes we comment on a friend's haiku, but it is not taken in the right spirit, or so we think, and whack whack whack about each other's intentions.



This morning again, my dear Haiku started playing and ended up having me duck the paws...
He is unhappy with the winter cold and in a bad mood ...
Then off he runs to his outside toilet for a major relief action and is back all smooth and cuddely ...

Counting the scars on my hands and arms, we have quite a few of these bouts
and yet I love him dearly.


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GABI san... haiku chan wa kawaii desu ne

Maybe it is just from my perspective... but the cat nap cussion/bed seem to be arranged in the shape of an "8"... very auspicously?

cats nap
eight shaped --
end of '08

I hope to be online to wish at that time... but if I miss that wish I give you and yours now a heart felt Happy New Year!!
CHIBI
.................................

I like chibi's take, but your cats make me think of ying yang Gabi.
We all need to understand cats. They allow us to coexist with them, and when they do or don't not feel like playing...watch out.
G.
.................................

If that's how Haiku behaves,
have you ever had a cat named Senryu?
B.

But you'd really have to be careful of the claws
if the cat's name is Zappai.
L.

HH




MY CAT HAIKU
Cats in Paradise .. O-Tsu and Haiku-Kun お津と俳句くん


. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2008


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kitsune

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bright daylight -
a fox peeks into my
living room

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I had just settled for a cup of tea when I saw some ears outside. Both cats were in the kitchen sleeping, so who could it be? Most probably a stray cat to chase away.

When I opened the door-window, a small fox was standing outside, looking at me in wonder just as I looked at him. He did not even run away, but seemed to ask "Care to feed me something?"

After quite a while he turned away, walked leisurely over to the staircase and to the upper part of our garden. With a final look back and giving me a kind nod he disappeared in the underbrush.


WHOW ... I sure hope to see this visitor again !


We have seen foxes around in the late evening and hear them in the nearby woods.



FOX ... a kigo for all winter


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Fotos and Haiku from Tom Maretic, thanks TOM!!


a young urban fox --
there is already friendship
in our meetings


fox's voice
in the night ... inspires
a new story












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. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2008


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dreaming room

[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]
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間　-　間　-　間



dreaming room ...
a new buzzword
for the old MA

click on the haiku to find out more ...

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as I sit in my dining room
wondering about the dreaming room
he calls from the living room



I do not approve of this word and do not consider it a translation of MA, but never mind.
For me, haiku is about reality and what I experience in the moment, not in a dream.

The word reminds me of the Australian aborigines "dream time, dreamtime", but that is a different matter alltogether, I find.




and one who can not keep his MA in Japanese culture is a

manuke　間抜け "one without a ma feeling"
a fool, an idiot, a blockhead, someone stupid . . .


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Assimilation of the Ma Aesthetic Better Equips Western Poets
to Write Haiku
by Denis M. Garrison

Amongst traditional Japanese aesthetic considerations applicable to the art of haiku writing, ma is arguably preeminent for poets working in another language, for whom much of the treasury of haiku allusions is not available. It is, of course, axiomatic that the better a poet assimilates the full panoply of traditional haiku aesthetics, the better equipped he or she will become; but for non-Japanese poets, ma has special value, I think.

What is ma?
Literally, ma is the sense of time and space, incorporating between, space, room, interval, pause, time, timing, passing, distanced, etc. More particularly, ma may be taken as the timing of space, as in the duration between two musical notes. Silence is valued as well as sound. It is said that the ma aesthetic is influential upon all varieties of Japanese art.

I am not an expert on Japanese traditional aesthetics, in general, nor in ma, specifically. It is not my intent to dissect nor analyze ma in its native context.

Read it all HERE

　© Denis M. Garrison / Simply Haiku Winter 2008


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the MA ...
could we be silent about
something else?


the MA ...
are we silent about
different things?


I just had a moment of silence with my cat HAIKU and he seemed to ... well ...
January 23, 2009

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shichi go choo and Kabuki 七五調


quote
"There is nothing like a ma!"

What is ma? Well, that's not so easy to explain but without it Kabuki wouldn't be half so interesting as it is. Imagine, for example, this speech that everybody knows -

"To be or not to be?"
(Dramatic pause)
"That is the question."

In Kabuki that pause would be called a ma, and ma are tension filled moments applicable to acting movements, dance, or speech. The internal psychology of a moment is expressed by the actor, who holds the attention of the audience in a pregnant pause that creates tension and emphasis.

Similar to the above example, ma may be expressed in speeches as the tension between the lines of shichi-go-chô - the division into lines of seven and five syllables used in much Japanese poetry. Look at the following example: in order to make things clear I have divided this haiku poem by the playwright and critic, Kawajiri Seitan (川尻清潭) into syllables -

Yo-za-ku-ra-ya (5) Evening cherry blossoms
Ma-ta Su-ke-ro-ku no (7) And once again
Ke-n-ka-za-ta (5) Sukeroku fights

Here one could imagine a dramatic ma pause after Mata Sukeroku no, before completing the poem. Similarly, when the thief Benten Kozō abandons his disguise as a young girl and reveals his name, (Benten musume meo no shiranami - "Benten the Male, Female Bandit") he dramatically lengthens the last syllable of Kozō before speaking the final part of his name - Kikunosuke. An actor with a poor sense of ma might well leave too short a pause and so any feeling of suspense before the completion would be lost.
Although Western poetry does not use shichi-go-chô (partly because Western languages do not have the consonant-vowel parings which make up the Japanese language), dramatic pausing between the lines can sometimes be equally important but perhaps less stylised than in Kabuki.

In movement, mie stop-motion poses demonstrate the most exciting examples of ma. Probably deriving from the fearsome iconography and facial expressions seen on some Buddhist statuary, mie are powerful poses by male characters that serve to emphasize moments of great import or tension. As the action stops, the character assumes a dramatic pose, revolves his head back and to one side and then, snapping the head into position, crosses one eye over the other and glares at his opponent. Mie are usually accompanied by two clear beats of the tsuke wooden blocks. It is the dramatic pause before the winding up and final snap of the head, between the first beat of the block and the second, which is an example of a ma of action.

Mie are unique to Kabuki and there is certainly nothing like them in Western theatre. Dramatic pauses are, therefore, more naturalistic and we find such pauses in Kabuki too. Let's look at the following fantastic example of ma which I will always remember. It was from Nakamura Utaemon VI's performance of Masaoka from Meiboku Sendai Hagi. Masaoka moves to the hanamichi in order to watch Sakae Gozen depart. Having just watched her son being murdered, Masaoka is desperate to run to his body. Watching her leave, Utaemon held the pose with extraordinary tension until, Sakae now gone, he collapsed in anguish. A master actor holding the audience in his hands!

Although we may not have a specific name for them, ma pauses are very important not only to Western theatre but in music too. My son, Misha, who is not a musician, was watching a very famous American conductor, conducting Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring," one of the greatest and most influential works of the twentieth century. The final section, the "Sacrificial Dance," is clearly divided into sections by very dramatic pauses. Every one of those fantastic pauses was cut far too short by the conductor, and all the drama was lost as the music flowed along to greatly reduced effect.

"That conductor is useless!" said Misha, and, judging by this example of very bad ma, I really had to agree. In Japan - particularly in the field of Kabuki - one would say his "ma ga warui" - his "ma is bad," meaning he has no sense of timing.

source : Ronald Cavaye - kabuki-bito.jp


. Sukeroku 助六 - Hero of Edo .




どーも　間が悪い　ma ga warui

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. . . Read my Haiku Theory Archives


. . . Read my Haiku Gallery



[ . BACK to DARUMA　MUSEUM　TOP . ]
[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]
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sleeping doll

midday heat - a still life with my Daruma cat midday heat ... my cat sleeps with her paper doll

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This is a special papermachee doll of a sleeping cat with a Daruma doll.
It sits on a shelf, where O-Tsu has sneeked in to find some peace.

MORE
Cats and Daruma, Manekineko 招き猫とだるま






. . . OUR CATS in my PHOTO ALBUM


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beneath my desk
my cat sleeps out of reach
of my feet


Jo McInerney, August 2008

Thank you, Jo!


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. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2008


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monsterlins

short night ... mijika yo at the stroke of twelve the monsters dance rainy afternoon - catching monsters and a few ghosts

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Read the full stories HERE

Fudo stabbing a Monster Cat (bakeneko)


and

More Gongen caught this afternoon !



. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2008


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summer heat

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summer heat ...
my cat hides under
the silk carpet




Haiku kun sneaked into my cooled room and peeks out from under the fringes of the carpet ... fully knowing he is not supposed to be there ...



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. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2008


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Fresh tea and kigo

meditating on a rainy day ... new green tea

The sad truth after the earthquake on March 11, 2011

first tea harvest -
the geiger counter keeps ticking
and ticking


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kigo for late spring

茶摘み chatsumi, picking tea leaves
茶摘歌 chatsumi uta, song of the tea pickers
chatsumime 茶摘女（ちゃつみめ）girls picking tea
In olden times, girls dressed in special kimono and headgear would go out to pick the tea leaves.
Click HERE to look at photos.
chatsumigasa 茶摘笠（ちゃつみがさ）straw hat of the tea pickers

chatsumikago 茶摘籠（ちゃつみかご）basket for the tea leaves
CLICK here for PHOTOS !


te hajime 手始（てはじめ）first picking (of tea leaves)
ichibancha 一番茶（いちばんちゃ）first picked tea
nibancha 二番茶（にばんちゃ）second picked tea
sanbancha 三番茶（さんばんちゃ）third picked tea
yobancha 四番茶（よばんちゃ）fourth picked tea

chayama 茶山（ちゃやま）mountain with tea plants
chayamadoki 茶山時（ちゃやまどき）time to go in the mountain with tea plants (for picking)
chatsumidoki 茶摘時（ちゃつみどき）time for picking (plucking) tea


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more kigo for late spring

seicha 製茶 (せいちゃ ) processing tea leaves
..... chatsukuri, cha tsukuri 茶つくり（ちゃつくり）
chamomi 茶揉み（ちゃもみ）massaging tea leaves
. . . CLICK here for Photos !
hoiroba 焙炉場（ほいろば）place for roasting tea leaves
hoiroshi 焙炉師（ほいろし）tea rosting master
cha no ha eri 茶の葉選り（ちゃのはえり）selecting tea leaves


kikicha 聞茶 (ききちゃ ) tasting tea ("listening to tea" )
..... kikicha 利茶（ききちゃ）
kagicha 嗅茶（かぎちゃ）smelling tea
..... kagicha 嚊茶（かぎちゃ）
cha no kokoromi 茶の試み（ちゃのこころみ）testing tea
after the tea leaves are processed, the first tea is tested in the company.


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新茶 shincha, new tea, fresh green tea
Tea Ceremony Saijiki
kigo for early summer


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Daruma san, 達磨さん、
the Indian Monk Bodhidaruma, founder of the Zen sect, practised Zazen for long hours.
When he got sleepy, he cut off his eyelids and threw them away.
Later he found a plant had grown out of them.
He collected the leaves and brewed the first tea
... says the legend.


. KIGO with Daruma San


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tea is a topic in coffee land Yemen.
So I need some kigo to point out when I drink it.
Here we use a tea glass.


the tea glass
warms up farmers' hands -
mountain dew

Heike Gevi
Kigo Hotline


. YEMEN SAIJIKI 　



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Shincha (新茶, Shincha), literally "new tea", represents the first month's harvest of Sencha. Over three quarters of all tea produced in Japanese tea gardens is Sencha, a tea selected for its pleasant sharpness and fresh qualities complementing a leaf of high uniformity and rich emerald color. Today Sencha is steam treated before further processing with hot-air drying and finally pan-frying.

Regions: Most regions make a number of kinds of Sencha, which are named according to the kind of processing used. Needle leaf Sencha is processed in Shizuoka and in the Yame region of Fukuoka. In other areas, including Kyushu, the comma-shaped leaf form is processed.

Popularity: Available for a limited time during the first crop of tea it is popular in Japan and is available in only limited amounts outside of it.

Flavor/Aroma: The earliest season Shincha (first month's Sencha harvest) is available in April in the south of Japan, and prized for its high vitamin content, sweetness and superior flavor. The flavour is full, robust, grassy and vegetal with a resinous aroma and minimal astringency.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !



More Reference !

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菅笠を着て覗き見る茶摘かな
suge-gasa o kite nozoki miru chatsumi kana

Tea-leaf picking:
Trying on her reed kasa,
She gazes in the mirror.


Shikou (1664-1731)
Tr. Blyth


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sanmon o dereba nihon zo chatsumi uta

outside the temple gate
it's Japan again!
song of the tea leaf pickers

. Tagami Kikusha 田上菊舎 .
Discussing the translation


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妻亡くし一人の夜の新茶かな　　
tsuma nakushi hitori no yo no shincha kana

I lost my wife ...
alone at night I drink
new green tea
Tr. Gabi Greve

©　樋口吉威 Horiguchi


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CLICK for more Japanese Haiga !


oshiego kara shincha todoku Shizuoka san

from my student
new tea arrives ...
from famous Shizuoka
Tr. Gabi Greve

©　石狼 Stone Fox


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Cross-cultural flowers ...

Green tea with milk and sugar ...
Stash Green Chai Spice

Indian Chai is enjoyed in cities and the smallest of villages, and is usually offered to every visitor to a home.
Chai is usually brewed very strong with lots of sugar and milk and often concentrated. Traditional Indian Chai combines rich black tea that is boiled in milk, and flavored with local spices such as sweet cinnamon, sharp clove, penetrating cardamom, and occasionally black peppercorns, pungent ginger and hot red chilies, and sweetened with sugar.
Chai can be both calming and stimulating, encouraging both conversation and relaxation. Stash Green Chai Spice lends a modern twist to the traditional Chai by blending Lung Ching or Dragonwell Chinese green tea with cinnamon, whole cloves, cardamom, ginger root and sarsaparilla. The result is a flavorful and spicy tea that goes well with milk and sugar and may be enjoyed any time of the day.
　© www.stashtea.com/
Thanks to Cat for introducing this beverage!


Read more in my Daruma Museum:
The Old Tea and Horses Road from Yunnan to Lhasa
茶馬古道（ちゃばこどう) Chaba Kodoo

"West Lake Dragon Well" 西湖龍井
Tea from China: Lung Ching, Long Jing


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Daruma Doll and Zazen
座禅のだるまさん


© PHOTO :　だるまさん色々


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More Daruma Dolls doing Zazen

These are clay dolls from Nakano.
中野土人形・座禅だるま




Photos from my friend Ishino.


Nakano clay dolls and Daruma

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More of my MEDITATION Haiku


. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2008


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watch the cat

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feeding time -
birds watch the cat
watch the birds



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. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2008


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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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autumn sunshine

autumn sunshine - flowers, a butterfly and my lazy cat

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Yesterday was the Autumn Haiku Marathon at NHK.
More than 5000 haiku offered within five hours. About 100 discussed during this time. Inahata Teiko and Kaneko Tohta at their best again !

Here is one lesson I learned, more to follow.


State the setting with a suitable kigo and show the actors only. No verb is used in this case.

For example:

withered fields -
father, son and
an old dog



Introducing NHK Haiku


Click HERE to look at the participants.
第35回 列島縦断俳句スペシャル-



Read my Haiku Archives 2007


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Cat on roof

summer's end - my cat still high on the hot tin roof

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She is trying to catch some of the crows which sit on the topmost gables.
This was the first time we saw her up there ... wondering about the way back down ... but she made it.




Read my Haiku Archives 2007


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Rainy Season

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rainy season -
I join my cat
for a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG nap





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Cats in Paradise ..
O-Tsu and Haiku-Kun お津と俳句くん



Read my Haiku Archives 2007


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AHA the moment

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I guess many expect tooooo much of the

AHA moment.

For me, it is just the little things in daily life that catch my attention at any moment, on the daily walk to the letterbox all these flowers by the wayside, my cat sleeping happily in his box, a mosquito trying to pierce the window pane, the raindrops still rolling down of leaves after the rain has stopped ... the problem is to be attentive to these small things.

Once you are attentive in every moment, you see sooooo many things to add your AHA ! Sometimes I can,t stop to use the shutter of my mental camera to catch all these little bits and pieces ... just, they are not GRAND in any way, not spectacular, not sensational, but they ARE !

I have learned to be attentive during the practise of Kyudo, Japanese archery. It is the same awareness, now clad in words, not in arrows ... hahaha


a last drop
from the bent leaf ...
summer rain is over


GABI responding to some discussions about the moment.



New Year's morning -
I wipe some dirt
from my glasses

January 2011



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Tempted to go on by so many reactions ...

aaa, the "haiku no shunkan 俳句の瞬間、あああの瞬間" as it would be in Japanese, has never come　to my attention yet !

It seems the term was coined by the haiku translators, like Kenneth Yasuda and R.H. Blyth.
source : simplyhaiku.theartofhaiku.com


The other day a group of rakugo tellers would make senryu starting with

aa, arara

to express surprize at something


a-a arara
another forum
to spent my time

XYZ-Forum

No, I did not write WASTE ... hahaha

.....


My Japanese haiku sensei would say:

genba ni tatte ... write from the place where you are ...
from reality and experience, as opposed to composing solely from your desk.

That is maybe misinterpreded as
show, don't tell
in the ELH world.
I still have not found a Japanese equivalent for this kind of advise.


Childhood memory ...

I guess when something was so unforgettable that you still remember now, it must have been quite a strong impresison at its real time ... therefore, somehow, you are still back there in the moment ... sort of a time slip moment ... dont know how to put that into English.

I think there is a difference between something you really experienced (either now or in the past)
and something you just make up, as you would write a novel or fiction.

I love to read biographies of famous people, but novels about nonexistant personalities are usually kind of boring ...

For me, the real quality in haiku, maybe shasei is the better word for that, brings it to live and makes it so unique.


Should we use imagination when composing a haiku?

For me, Japanese haiku is a snapshot of a moment of real life, presented without judgement or imagined embellishing whatnots ... indeed, that is the most important part of haiku training for me. This is where I find haiku so much different from Western poetry. It teaches me to be attentive, without being judgemental, philosophical or hunting for special effects.
Maybe we should go back and examine the motives of WHY we write haiku
and not any other kind of short-form poetry.

More about this in my LINK about shasei, sketching from real life.

My Haiku Training, My Haiku Doo 　俳 句 道


There are of course other attempts when composing haiku,
shasei is not the only one.


Poetry is
the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings:
it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility."
William Wordsworth


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Matsuo Basho to his student Hattori Doho :

If you get a flash of insight into an object,
record it before it fades away in your mind.

- Reference - Blyth on Basho


. Hattori Dohoo 服部土芳 .



Matsuo Basho also has two haiku by himself, where he uses the expression
. - shibaraku wa しばらくは for a while - . 　　


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a moment of experience

In Japanese, we sometimes call it TAIKEN　体験, experience with your whole body ... children are great at this!

Of course I KNOW that the charcoals are hot, but only when I touch them ... hopefully by accident ... can I experience this physically.
and then write my haiku about it ...

lunchtime -
a hot potato
on my plate

My husband does the cooking and I burn my fingers on the hot potatoes ... grin grin ... got this hot one before putting it into my mouth.

a "moment of real experience" is wonderful and alive and right here and now.
But stretching this to a moment of "temporary enlightenment" and then "Zen enlightenment" ... is something quite different.




Take your time to check this discussion

Susumu Takiguchi : Aha, Just A Moment, Please　



Not 'Here and Now' but
'Everywhere and Everywhen'
Haiku Time versus Newtonian Time
WHR Susumu Takiguchi


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Beyond the Haiku Moment
Haruo Shirane

If Basho and Buson were to look at North American haiku today, they would see the
horizontal axis, the focus on the present, on the contemporary world, but they would probably feel that the
vertical axis, the movement across time, was largely missing.

There is no problem with the English language haiku handbooks that stress personal experience. They should. This is a good way to practice, and it is an effective and simple way of getting many people involved in haiku.

I believe, as Basho did, that direct experience and direct observation is absolutely critical; it is the base from which we must work and which allows us to mature into interesting poets. However, as the examples of Basho and Buson suggest, it should not dictate either the direction or value of haiku. It is the beginning, not the end. Those haiku that are fictional or imaginary are just as valid as those that are based on personal experience. I would in fact urge the composition of what might be called historical haiku or science fiction haiku.


As I have shown in my book Traces of Dreams: Landscape, Cultural Memory, and the Poetry of Basho, Basho believed that the poet had to work along both axes. To work only in the present would result in poetry that was fleeting. To work just in the past, on the other hand, would be to fall out of touch with the fundamental nature of haikai, which was rooted in the everyday world. Haikai was, by definition, anti- traditional, anti-classical, anti-establishment, but that did not mean that it rejected the past. Rather, it depended upon the past and on earlier texts and associations for its richness.


Read more HERE
Beyond the Haiku Moment:
Basho, Buson and Modern Haiku myths
Haruo Shirane



More Reference


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quote
A Moment in the Sun: When Is a Haiku?
The “now” of haiku isn’t quite as simple as many haiku poets think. Is it the original moment of experience? Is it the moment of inspiration when you are moved to write about an experience, regardless of when that experience happened? Is it the “moment” that is captured within the poem, that may or may not have actually happened, but that readers believe happened, or could have? Or is it the moment when the reader “gets” the same experience upon reading the poem, upon realizing that he or she has had the same experience? It’s easy to say “all of the above.”
And perhaps that’s the fullest answer, but not every haiku poet believes that each of these possible “moments” has equal value. Some believe that haiku must be about direct personal experience, and that you must not alter any of the facts.

Michael Dylan Welch
source : graceguts/essays


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inazuma ya kinoo wa higashi kyoo wa nishi

Enomoto Kikaku 　


flashes of lightning -
yesterday in the east
today in the west

Tr. Gabi Greve

We might wonder if this is one moment or longer ...
I remember a terrible summer in our valley, with one thunderstorm chasing the other for about two weeks. Sometimes three separate thundres would show up in one evening and keep us awake and shaking, since the thunder really reverberates in the valley, in the house and in your own body after a while ...

I would have written a haiku like this one too, after two weeks of constant fear and shaking, and still within the limits of this one moment when the thunder would come back again ... aaaa, here we go ...


flashes of lightning -
yesterday to the right
today to the left


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Quote from the SHIKI archives

What is for YOU the 'aha moment' ?

Perhaps it's the moment when one recognizes what meets the eye as being more than what meets the eye. For me that can happen in the immediate moment, but also after the fact, upon reflection. It's also the awareness of a single moment in which one or more elements are encompassed, and which may be in striking (and sometimes ironic) contrast with one another.
- - -


Is it for you an important, an indispensable part of the haiku ?

Yes; without the 'aha' moment, it is just an interesting three-line poem.
The degree of the 'aha'-ness (!) might vary, but there is always something that makes you aware of more than just the description of the moment at hand. Here are two examples by Issa translated by Robert Hass. The first is more descriptive and pastoral, to my mind, than the second. which is more immediately striking; yet it makes me think on it longer:

snip snip

Can haiku be a neutral description of the world ?

Yes, it can be, but it is usually much more, because although a haiku poem is often a description of something (for instance) in nature, or of a single event, we bring our mind and our ability to make connections and recognize allusions and parallels elsewhere in our experience to our reading of the poem. And so the depth of it's 'description' increases. But I think Marjorie Buettner has put it much better than I.... :-)

susan bond
©　Read more in the SHIKI archives




railroad crossing
their goodnight kiss
one hundred boxcars long

Edward

Free Format Theme: Time
Shiki Monthly Kukai April 2010



. . . . . More LINKS about this subject !


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The Haiku Spirit

another topic often quoted in English language haiku theory.

俳句スピリツ　？？？

I wonder what this would be in Japanese?

quote
俳句随想―海外の俳人と共に俳句を考える　
烏山九齊

「芭蕉の言葉」

一、俳諧の誠（俳諧という言葉は俳句と置き換えてお考え下さい）
見るにあり、聞くにあり、作者感ずるや句となる所は、即ち俳諧の誠なり。
解説」自分が見聞きして、感動したことがそのまま句となるのが、俳諧の誠なのである。
俳諧の誠とは、俳諧の精神 ・価値 というほどの意味で、今の言葉で言えば、詩性とでも言うのでしょう。対象に直面したときのその場の生きた感覚に重きを置き、それが作品となるところに俳句の価値があるというのです。

1. Haikai no makoto (sincerity of haiku)

A haiku poet needs to feel inspiration from the varied emotions and impressions inspired by nature via looking and listening. It is the haiku true mind. Without sincerity, there is no haiku spirit. And without the spirit, a haiku is not a haiku.

俳諧の精神 ・価値 haikai no seishin to kachi

bilingual source : 烏山九齊



The Fishing Cat Press
Thanks to webmaster Gilles Fabre, the "Haiku Spirit" begun by Jim Norton and Sean O'Connor lives in a new form.
Haiku Spirit
in English and French ... www.haikuspirit.org/


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MacDonalds
MacZen
MacHaiku

further thoughts

Imagine a Catholic mass celebrated with green tea and rice crackers.
Or
a Zendoo with chairs and everybody drinking coffee.

It is the essence, not the form, you might say.
But sometimes I wonder, if the simpler item, the form, does not even fit, how can the essence be the same?
If you do not make the effort and communicate in Japanese, live in Japan, how do you really expect to UNDERSTAND the essence of Japanese Zen or Japanese Haiku ?

. My Musings about cross-cultural understanding .


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ZEN and HAIKU ... and the moments inbetween


MORE
about writing haiku ...
in the moment

Sketching from Nature , SHASEI 写生



Rakugo ... comic storytelling performances 落語


. . . . . BACK TO
My Haiku Theory Archives

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some comments from friends

Some tend to say that the moment is less of an "aha" than "ah."
I also think there is some confusion as to whether the moment is in the haiku or prior to it. The former view leads, I think, to greater emphasis on rules, the latter to greater formal flexibility.

.....

"show don't tell" is what they tell me often when workshopping. "show the moment".

Dear friend
this is a piece of advise I have not yet heared from my Japanese sensei. I guess it is a misunderstanding of the shasei concept of sketching from nature.
But there are many ways to write haiku, shasei is just one tool to use.
Gabi


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haiku moments -
in the temple garden
stones asleep

Shikoku, Summer 2005



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