Tamamushi-Iro: Issa Bug Haiku

This incredible little short film was put together by Mike Hazzard of "The Center for International Education" out of St. Paul, Minnesota, the organization responsible for the film "The Poetry and Life of Cold Mountain," a clip from which was featured in a previous post.  Created by 25 students from grades 1 through 8 at the Capital Hill School in St. Paul and they are magnificent.  Kids, as always, cut through the nonsense (a/ka/ my typical posts) and get right to the core of haiku.  I got misty, I laughed out loud, I loved this little film.  I ordered it from CIE and plan to use it in this fall's haiku class for seniors.

I first ran across it at the site "Moving Poems" and traced it back to the CIE site for more info and to place an order. Though this youtube video is the film in its entirety, supporting CIE seemed a great thing to do.

Enjoy.

Even with insects,
some can sing,
some can't.

Issa
translated by Robert Hass

best,
Don