Poet Profile

Taro Aizu

Taro Aizu was born in the Aizu region of Fukushima prefecture, Japan in 1954 and now in 2019, he lives in Atami in Shizuoka Prefecture. He has been writing haiku for 24 years, gogyoshi for 16 years in Japanese, English and French.

Awards and Other Honors: “Excellent Prize” of the 27th All Japan Modern Haiku Competition, 199; "First Prize”, of the 28th All Japan Modern Haiku Competition, 1991; "Special Prize”, The 2nd Love Poems Competition in Japan, 1991; Three gogyoshi selected in an anthology of English tanka all over the world: AKE FIVE, Best Contemporary Tanka, volume 4" in 2012; Poet Laureate Award, Axlepin Publishing in Philippines, 2013; International Poet Award of JUNPA in Japan, 2014; An excellent award of Tetovo university in Macedonia, 2015; An excellent award of Heraklion in Greece, 2016; An excellent award of Geoje museum in Korea, 2017.

Books Published:

いとしい地球よ” (The Dear Earth) in Japanese in September, 2005; The Lovely Earth in English in January, 2011; La Terre Précieuse in French in July, 2011; Kindle collections of haiku and gogyoshi, My Fukushima in 7 languages: Japanese, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, German in January, 2013; わが福島 My Fukushima Mon Fukushima in May, 2014; Our Lovely Earth with Dr. Sigma, a poet in India in July, 2016; My translation titled, HOW THE TWINS GREW UP? in October, 2017 (this is written by a Serbian writer and professor, Milutin Djurickovic); My Fukushima in November, 2017 in Serbian by Milutin Djurickovic; The Precious Earth in February,2018; French anthology titled Je ne peux le croire in November, 2018 carries his two Gogyoshi; The First Anthology of World Gogyoshi in April, 2019; Haibun journals titled My Trip to Crete in May, 2019.

1. on the way home I buy diapers for my dog ... cherry blossoms

2. I make a quilt down bed for my dog ...
 very cold spring 

3. I wipe my bedridden dog ... with a towel

4. my dog stands up suddenly ... spring morning

5. my dog is bedridden again ... all day long

6. I close the eyelids of my dog ... deathbed 

7. my dog has left in the time of cherry blossom ... 
my lawn garden

8. I bury Moomin’s bones in the ground... 
garden’s corner 

9. I plant a seedling of a cherry ... for my dog 

10. this time next year the cherry tree 'Moomin'... full bloom

Credits: Dedicated to Taro Aizu’s beloved dog named "Moomin" - International Multilingual Poetry Anthology Amaravati Poetic Prism 2018, ed. Padmaja Iyengar-Paddy, Vijayawada, India 2018