Poet's Hall - Erie, PA: One Night Only!

Reading up in Erie this Friday, July 11th, at Poets' Hall, for those in the area. I'll be bringing my brand new book, Yield to the Willow (Six Gallery Press, 2014), and will be the featured poet of the evening.

hidden in everything plain sight 

And now back to your regularly scheduled internet. 

 

here and there
a plain and to-the-point
willow

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

PS  Click to learn how to contribute to Wednesday Haiku.
 

Elitism

Photo by J. C. Butler

Elitism is an odd, sometimes funny, ofttimes sad, thing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Walking about, you might stumble on a meadow full of daisies when emerging from a darkened wood. All seem the same; they are all quite lovely, having a collective presence, a certain oneness.

Cutting through the meadow, you see in the near distance a road, perhaps one you've taken before. There is a ditch, or trench, that runs along the side of the road, and there is a single daisy, near an adjoining culvert, in its full splendor.

This daisy stands out, errant though it may be. You - we - are attracted to it: it seems, somehow, finer than the rest.

Behind us now is the meadow, resplendent with daisies. Ahead, a ditch, with a single daisy, a daisy that stands out.

             

                    every
                    single
                    petal

                    every
                    one

Photo by Denise Lynn R.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Artwork by Okuhara Seiko



 

filling in

for temple flowers...

a willow

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,

Don

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Silent Flowers 3: Four Poems

Artwork by Nanae Ito

This is the third post on the diminutive little Hallmark haiku collection Silent Flowers. I revisited this book last month, taking a look at 6 poems that I hadn't talked in my first post back in 2010.  Here are 4 more excellent poems from Silent Flowers, translated by R. H. Blyth and astutely selected by Dorothy Price, that haven't appeared in either post.

The first three all appear within a page of each other, and seem to focus on a single image, the smaller the better:

    The kitten
Holds down the leaf,
    For a moment.

            Issa

Here is a fine example of the exception to the rule, the rule being: show, never tell. Well, perhaps the reason it works is that it does a bit of both. 



     You can see the morning breeze 
Blowing the hairs 
     Of the caterpillar.

                          Buson

  
I would say with the layout we can feel the morning breeze though we can't see it, particularly in the fine opening line (which, of course, breaks yet another rule). 

    Grasshopper, —
Do not trample to pieces 
    The pearls of bright dew. 

           Issa

  
The observation in the later two poems is so finely delineated as to be absolutely marvelous.  Each does what a ku should do - captures a perfect little moment; yet in this case all three share another quality. These are not pictures painted, or photos snapped: they are all moments in motion, the movement acutely emphasizing the fleeting quality of a moment, yet capturing it in that movement.

Magicians at work.

A few more pages along comes a 4th ku, and this one captures not just the body and mind, but the soul: 

Yield to the willow
All the loathing, all the desire
Of your heart

              Bashō

 I yi yi yi! We are yielding to the willow, we are yielding to desire, we are yeilding to loathing, we are yielding to our heart ...

Let us yield to Bashō. 

At this rate, I have a feeling there will be a 4th post on Silent Flowers.


----------

the village child
clutching the willow
sound asleep

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

 

And, of course, yield to the raven.

best,

Don

  

PS. Get 2 free issues. Get 2 more free issues

Lillie poem archive

Send a single haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 156 songs