Heart Mountain Bungei: Haiku
Haiku: Haiku is the version of Japanese poetry most familiar to English speakers. It is a very short form of poetry consisting of a 5-7-5 syllable structure. It is distinguished from senryū by the use of kigo, or season-words, that link each haiku to a particular time of year. Haiku traditionally are expected to evoke a sense of the human condition by capturing a particular moment and avoiding the use of personal pronouns like I, we, you, us, etc. Haiku are also supposed to avoid using metaphor.
Haiku
Dawn has come as the winter moon still lingers in the west In the distance the roiling waves of the mountain ridge are white—morning snowfall
Read Full PieceExcerpts from the Heart Mountain Poetry Society
Kawashima Hatsune The morning dew in the flower garden, too, has grown lonesome! The train departing in the morning chill, the frightening blue eye Having become a dekasegi woman: the...
Read Full PieceHaiku
My Fourth Son Leaves to Enlist in the Army: 7 Haiku When the earth was covered in fresh green he set off undaunted from Heart Mountain His uniform...
Read Full PieceHaiku
Crushing underfoot these pillars of frost, punting the soccer ball Varied and bountiful harvest: this is the victor nation Autumn wind—a black raven, cawing as it crosses the...
Read Full PieceCelebrating the Publication of the Heart Mountain Bungei
Sunrise shining on the high peak; traces of snow Treated to black tea, the autumn night grows late Mountain peak at my shoulder, thousand barracks under an autumn...
Read Full Piece