International Haiku Day

INTERNATIONAL HAIKU DAY and POETRY FRIDAY

International Haiku Day on April 17 is a great opportunity to dust off haiku skills. Our backyard forsythia inspired me. We have never had the good fortune to witness this New England harbinger of spring in our yard until this year in a new home. 

A bit of process here - notebook, pencil, phone camera were my tools. Next, close observation, appreciation, brainstorming. Blossoms, bloom, yellow, lemon, burst, thicket, hope filled my list and crafting began. I don't feel constricted by the 5-7-5 syllable "rule", because English words tend to be longer than Japanese, and I feel a shorter syllable count is more true to the nature of the haiku form.

"Yellow thicket became lemon thicket, and you can see where this is going... "Lemony Snicket" popped into my brain, and the rest fell into place. "A Series of Unfortunate Events" is a polite way of describing the times we're living through, and probably best for a poem. I have found it difficult to maintain the optimism with which others often characterize me. Hope is sometimes buried, but the re-appearance of spring encourages me.

hope blossoms

midst unfortunate events -

lemony thicket 

I was pleased to have some haiku accepted by Moonstone Arts for their April 17 celebration. It's my first experience with them, and I like their philosophy and mission.

 I've been away for a long time. It's wonderful to know that Poetry Friday celebrations are as robust as ever. Thanks to Heidi over at My Juicy Little Universe for rounding up the poetry community and posting a video on teaching poetry!

 

SUSTAINABILITY, BASHO, AND A NEW BOOK

 

What does the 17^th century poet Bashô have to do with sustainability? As a Buddhist, this haiku master revered nature. His haiku celebrate frogs, cicadas, summer rain and much more. He lived in simpler times when sustainability was a way of life, not a call to save the planet. 

Bashô traveled by foot throughout Japan and recorded his impressions. The Narrow Road to the Interior is his literary travelogue in a totally new poetic form – haibun. Haibun consists of a paragraph of prose followed by a haiku. The haiku is meant to complement the text or suggest new meaning. My new book is both a nod to Bashô and a call to sustainable practices.

the seed of all song
is the farmer’s busy hum
as he plants his rice

           ~Bashô, The Narrow Road to the Interior 

 

Thank you to Linda, hosting today from A World Edgewise. My blog has been on vacation for a long time - Covid, broken arm, rehab, other projects. Sometimes it's a challenge to pick up from where you left off!

 This month I’m thrilled to announce publication of Food for All our Tomorrows, Poems on Seed, Soil, and Sustainability by the Asian Rural Institute Press. AFARI (American Friends of ARI) has generously printed copies for a North American audience.

 

This book is a collection of twenty-nine bi-lingual poems for middle grade in the haibun style. Four years in the making, the idea for this book germinated throughout three volunteer stints at the Asian Rural Institute in Tochigi, Japan. Though the haiku that complete each haibun are classified as English language haiku, I hope that Bashô might have approved.

ARI is tucked away on a hillside in Japan. It’s a green school, one committed to sustainable farming where grassroots people can learn and share ideas for building a better world.

 

My husband Bob and I spent 4 months at ARI in 2010, and two months each in 2013 and 2018. We planted and harvested, mucked and fed pigs, along with chickens, goats, and fish. We provided office support, cooked meals, worshiped, sang and played together. 

 

And we fell in love with ARI where grassroots participants from Southeast Asia, the Pacific, Africa and South America produce food, honor the earth by caring for the soil, conserve resources, and care for each other.

 

I am honored that the Asian Rural Institute chose to publish this book. I hope it will plant many seeds- seeds of respect for soil and plants, and seeds of awareness of our need for each other.