The Haiku Foundation Forums

eastbound train
carries the evening home
Janmashtami

This one is really nice!
Enjoyed the prose too. We used to live in El Cerrito. :)

Best,
Vida

I may be very wrong in my interpretation of this haiku. Here's what I found "translating" it back and forth with google,

No. arrow summer stone monster fight in silence under the clouds of imaginary


http://s.webry.info/sp/banyahaiku.at.webry.info/201110/article_3.html

Quoteunder the clouds of imaginary numbers
fighting silently
against a monster

Ban'ya Natsuishi. Translated by Ban'ya Natsusihi and Jim Kacian.


under the nitrogen blue sky
the white horse
of my life

Patrick Sweeney

Hi John,

Both poems are so intriguing that I have been returning many times here, but at the end my vote goes for Ban'ya Natsuishi.

under the clouds of imaginary numbers
fighting silently
against a monster



I suspect it has something to do with the characters of Hellsing- some are monsters, some humans, and some turn into a "a set of imaginary numbers", existing on some level but not in reality. However I am not into manga and I cannot comment from this point of view.

That would be really interesting though! Maybe someone else knows more about it. For the moment, I could imagine my son in a few years- reading a manga, instead of doing a big math homework :))

What made me vote for the haiku is the comparison of two non-real things: imaginary numbers and monsters. They are both existing only in their relationship with the reality (as we know it). Take the reality out and the non-real things also cease to be.  Also I really liked the idea that we need our monsters as we need these imaginary numbers in math.

Wonderful choice of poems, John. I enjoyed them both!

Best,
VIda

"For me, kata is the channel I use to go beyond surface appearances to arrive at the core, inner aspects of human nature." YASUDA
http://www.tokyofoundation.org/en/articles/2012/haiku-and-noh

:)
Vida

Hi Norman, Lorin, Sandra...I don't know if anyone else from the authors or publishers visits this forum.

Just wanted to say that I am enjoying every page of The Little Book of Yotsumonos.

Thank you for the magic trip :)

All my best,
Vida (Tzetzka)

Alan,

My mistake too. I thought the next person could use both words "Ascension Thursday." It's a bit of a stretch to start only with Thursday :)) (at least for me). Sorry!

I'll change my verse. Here,

roller coaster
the screeching voice
of an icy wind

Adelaide

wind blown hair
my favorite photo
of her and her horse

marty

horses exercise
round and round the paddock-
neither first nor last

Adelaide

last minute deals...
I buy a ticket
for Ascension Day

Vida

roller coaster
the screeching voice
of an icy wind

Adelaide

wind blown hair
my favorite photo
of her and her horse

marty

horses exercise
round and round the paddock-
neither first nor last

Adelaide

last minute deals...
I buy a ticket
for Ascension Thursday

Vida

Both frozen butterfly and butterfly in my memory lack their wings

Hashimoto Takako

(One Hundred Frogs, Hiroaki Sato)

David, Gabi,

Thank you for these wonderful links!

Best,
Vida

What an interesting discussion!

If I may return to this,

Quotewaga oya no
shinuru toki ni mo
he o kokite

Even at the time
When my father lay dying
I still kept farting

I don't think the poet is being funny, or vulgar, or overly philosophical.  Now, I don't know much about the Japanese culture, and I may be wrong in my understanding.
He compares two events, one seems to be huge- a death, the other- very small. But they are not so different. We have no control over any of them. They happen independently of what we do or what we wish.
The poet does not mean disrespect to his dying father, he just had a bad meal, or he has a bad stomach. His father does not die in purpose, it's his time. We can postpone, or try our best to fix each of this events, but neither our bodily functions nor our death are  our servants.  :)
What I got from the poem is that we don't have to consider any event too big or too small. They are equally important and unimportant.
I think the poem is genius :). If I have understood it right  ;)

Best,
Vida

PS I really enjoyed all poems!

a darkness so deep
I am surrounded
by gold beetles

Paul Pfleuger, Jr.

through eye holes
of a paper mask
I watch the gate closing

Fay Aoyagi


Hi,

Very difficult choice again.  Plenty of room for the imagination in both haiku.

I am a huge fan of Fay's poems, but my vote here goes for Paul's haiku. My first thought was, why aren't these beetles rolling the sun back to its place? :)

Best,
Vida

bone marrow
the wag of ancestral tongues
war to war to war

pat

the game of  War
we slap the cards down hard
following thunder

Adelaide

thunder muffles
old hanging chimes
soft snoring

Matthew

snoring dragon...
a down feather floats up
and down with the smoke

Vida


   

I got the Kindle version the other day and now I am enjoying the read :)
Congratulations!

Best,
Vida

fox tracks
only the crunch of snow
for company

pat


company lunch
my boss measures
his sandwich

John


sandwiched between
a Kindle and the Times
on the underground

Sue


Underground
the first note probes
my Balkan bones

Vida

old dust
we become closer friends
this hot and cold night

Alan

night owl
along the roof tops
the sound of fog

Don

fog horn
marks time amongst
anchored boats

Sue

anchored boats
in the bathtub...
the sailor yawns

Vida