Shiki kukai July 2015

And also the ku that was placed third in the Kigo section.
The prompt was : Tropical night/summer night

the faint curve

of a bare shoulder-

tropical night

July 2015 shiki kukai

The verse that managed to get only 4 points in the free format section.

 The theme was "quiet".

rolling wheat fields...

the fragrance of noonday

quiet

Shiki kukai, June 2015

From Shiki kukai ,free format section.
The subject was "insect metamorphosis".

a cicada shell

full of night...the emptiness

 that lingers

June 2015

World haiku review

I know I've been neglecting my blog. But I promise to change.And for a starter, one of my poems published in the current (June, 2015) issue of World Haiku Review. Actually, it's my debut in the journal.

thrush song...

who am I 

to figure you out

(Honorable mention in the shintai section)

NaPoMo, April 30

Darkness
wet with
the sound of the waves

With these lines, Santoka had me hooked. And afterwards, as I found and read more of his poems, I became totally mesmerised with his poetry.

Twilight -  the sound

of a sad letter

being dropped in a postbox

Taneda Santoka has not been accorded a place among the greatest Japanese masters,the quartet of Basho, Buson, Issa and Shiki.Yet who else but this beggar-monk poet could have written this verse?

whiteness of the rice,

red of pickled plum,

these treasures...

Nobody but Santoka could have made us listen to the rain like this:

even the sound of raindrops

has grown older

I was moved by the depth of his anguish when he wrote:

slowly, slowly
falling into ruin
my final autumn

And my seduction was complete, when I read this.

when I'm dead

and gone

rain on weeds

NaPoMo, April 29

Kobayashi Issa has been by far the most loved and most popular poet among the Japanese masters. His snail,cat, sparrow, spider;  or the thatched hut...everything has been emulated and rewritten multiple times and will continue to be so.

Here are just a few of  my favourites:

my dead mother—
every time I see the ocean
every time...

The distant mountains

reflected in the eye

of the dragonfly

on the tips

of my outstretched toes...

billowing clouds

A poor box,

four or five pennies,

evening rain

When I go,

guard my tomb well,

grasshopper

NaPoMo, April 28.

no bridge

and the sun going down--
spring currents

Although I had always thought that I liked Issa the most among the famous quartet of Japanese masters, yet I find the pages of the little notebook that contain my favourite haiku, filled with the verses of Buson more than anybody else's. Yosa Buson, the second among the greatest Japanese masters,lived from 1716 to 1784 and was a painter of distinction as well as a poet which explains why his poetry is so vivid and sensuous, so rich in visual detail.

old well

leaping for a mosquito

a dark fish sound

young bamboo trees

at Hashimoto -- the courtesan,

is she still there or not?

       I go
you stay;
       two autumns.