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Haiku poems composed during the Imperial Pilgrimage Tour
May 2004
Beautiful mountains
Forests of a thousand greens
Image of Japan
(voted winner)
Japanese translation of winning haiku
(translated by Mieko Yoshida)
Hot cedar wood baths
Outside under midnight stars
Morning forest green
Boots off, flip flops on
Flip flops off, toilet ones on
Flip flops off for mats
Up, up, up, up, up
Down, down, down, to hot cedar baths
Delicious food served
Up down, up down, up
Now only down, slowly, slowly
Lunch of pot noodles
Temples, Buddha, rain
Children's hats of red, yellow
Steps, steps, thousand steps
Penny King
Heavy May rainfall
On ancient Kumano Way
Shows greenery best
Two boobies on show
Three women in a hot tub
Who dared show and tell
May rain on the trail
Slippy moss covered boulders
Falling like nine pins
Waterfall dripping
Along the Kumano trail
Creates mossy stones
Pretty Yoshino
Where are the cherry blossoms?
Must come back again
Peaceful ryokan
Paper walls, tatami mats
Shuffling feet on floors
Sylvia Eldridge
Mist covered mountains
Disappearing in the haze
Rain dripping from leaves
Ishidatami
Winding inexorably
Up through the clouds
Path to Koguchi
Sunlight dapples though trees
Wind in the branches
Oku no in path
Birds sing high in the cedars
Walk in cool green shade
Kumano Kodo
Gravity defying paths
Up, up, up, and down
Mountains wreathed in mist
Good food and good companions
Yoshinoyama
Janet Woolbar
Walking and talking
With friends once new, now old
Days pass very quickly
Mountains to walk up
Too many temples to see
No time for haiku
Footpaths ascending
Footpaths descending, and then
Paths ascending again
Brollies on holiday
Surely this type of weather
We can get at home?
Keith Harding
Hot snot? No, hot soup
Just where do you draw the line?
Exquisite colours
More steps than raindrops
Masses and masses of moss
Gates to eternity
We saw ten monkeys
But two of us missed them
Who's the monkey now?
'I can't write haiku'
Well, that's what everyone thinks
Until they hike Japan
Bob Heffill