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Haiku poems composed during the Imperial Pilgrimage Route tour May 2007
Drive a narrow road
Drunken monk says ‘Good and bad'
Is this Nirvana?
(voted best haiku)
Japanese translation of winning haiku
hosomichi zo
‘guddo ando baddo'
satori kana
Millions of children
The temple stands serenely
Japan 's Disneyland ?
Take off my slippers
Put on my tiny slippers
Tall guy bangs his head
Mike Keesee
Ancient sculptured stone
Zigzag pattern on a rock
Gillian's footprint
Terraced paddy fields
Blanketed under pine trees
Ancestral ghosts weep
Fresh green leaves through steam;
Hot spa water clouds my brain
Shall I sleep again?
Eyes fixed on the path
Blood pounding in my temples;
Please Bob, let's stop now.
John Vernon
From the forest floor
Camelia in her hand
Drinking up the sweat
John Vernon and Gillian Higenbottam
Like Basho's lady
I search but cannot hear you
Hototogisu
Hototogisu
Listening in vain as I walk
Through the cypress trees
Green temple garden
Thick grey clouds fill the sky – then,
Wind from the mountains
Sound of pilgrim's bell
Ahh … so apologetic
Now hear the pine wind
Gillian Higenbottam
Nightingale aloft
And quietly underfoot
Japanese birdsong
Monkeys cross the road
But Mike sees nothing, nothing
Reggae in the van
Jonathan and Jane
Mike, Mignon, Gillian too
Eat Japan with Bob
Geisha girls dancing
The plot seems quite elusive
Hike Japan ending
Jonathan Mould
On nightingale floors
We tiptoed past golden screens
A shoguns castle
Through whispering pines
A mossy stream meanders
And a lone frog croaks
Take off my boots dear
And both my socks, darling
Cherry blossom love
Jane Mould
Eat , not ‘Hike Japan '
Ball of algae in my soup
Crunchy eel backbones
Everywhere you look
Decorating the tall trees
Wild wisteria
Hear nightingales' call
As we walk through the palace
Engineering ‘feet'
In stiletto heels
And over-the-knee socks
Kyoto Lolas
In the Nara Mall
There is a jazz bar
With fifties furniture
Birds announce the dawn
Tatami mats smell like grass
Better than camping
Combed and elegant
Sandcastles in the garden
Are silver temples
Hard hiking
We walked thirty-thousand steps
To a waterfall
Tiny pink azaleas
Shift to orange and ocean blue
Mignon Marks
Lost in my dreams
Flutter by a butterfly
Who is dreaming who?
Little millipede
If I had as many legs
I should surely trip
We've covered some ground!
Mostly climbing up and up
And downed a few
Green, green, green, green, green
Children at Nanzenji … rain …
Sound of the ocean
Bob Heffill