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Haiku poems composed during the West Japan Explorer tour November 2005
Sitting cross-legged
Eating crab. Fortunate crab
Such flexible legs
(Crab envy)
(voted winner)
Japanese translation of winning haiku
Leaf pressed in clay
Negative to positive
Potter's miracle
(At the pottery)
Through cool dark forest
Sun breaks out on mountain top
A double blessing
(On Miyanoura-dake)
Lamp posts march in line
Twilight shades the autumn hills
Layers of landscape
(Walking back from pottery)
Alan Wenban-Smith
Down in the cold hut
Inspissated gloom presaged
By stertorous farts
(Morning)
(voted second)
Sad Japanese lady
Performs the ancient ritual
Bowing gracefully
(Tea)
“Dawn on Mount Fuji ”
Said the Sage of Ecclefechan
“Butters no persimmons”
(Thomas Carlyle)
In the warm damp dark
Gently swings the grizzled squirrel
Thinking of his nuts
(Nature)
Judy Wenban-Smith
Wild monkeys and deer
Watching the photographers
Just contemplating
Buddhas listening
Slightly battered by their age
But not answering
Trees with autumn coats
Volcanoes bellowing steam
Ice on the leaves
Careless and carefree
Koi swimming by the pavements
Joy in Usuki
Dorothy Everatt
A small silver fish
Twists and curves head left, tail right
Challenging chopsticks
Ginko and maple
November sunshine and mist
The camera clicks
Oh, holy mountain
Snow covers your stony path
Your will turns me down
In the falling rain
The train winds through autumn woods
So my life passes
Kate Wentworth
Empty cans rattle
The masses prattle
Truth is eternal
Peace; mountainous peace
Behind, the ever mounting noise
Gone, mountainous peace!
(The spirit of the mountains)
Young life grows, ever thus
Even now death stalks, ever present
Soon death comes – too soon
Dennis Everatt
Shakespeare sonnet is
Too long to be a haiku
O Gordon Bennett
I drank much shochu
Ate chopsticks with tsunami
Watanabi you?
Joy full in Japan
Climbing Mount Aso with you
My heart beats faster
Looking for the shrine
I hear the great bell sounding
The peace of Daisen
Stephen Wentworth
Kites soar on high
Sika graze, monkeys squabble
Yakushima smile
Orange man leading
Silent feet caress the rock
Tom glides onwards
Pilgrims slithering
Snowy Daisen sits serene
Dennis-san gone
Gaijin lady prowls
Boy reaches for a sweet
The camera clicks
Nigel Perry
White skin freckled face
Obviously a gaijin
The crowds mill around me
Gulliver lies down
To take a photo up the
Model temple steps
The bow the smile hides
Her contempt as she hands me
The correct slippers
Crashes and screams outside
Monkeys play with all our pots
Inside we sleep on
Paula Perry
Sweet smell of crab
Fresh breeze from the Japan Sea
At Kinosaki
Monkeys came to play
Curry night on the mountain
Yakushima moon
Down in the valley
What I thought were falling leaves
Was a flock of birds
Whisking fresh green tea
Aso. Autumn harmony
m … m … m … m …m*
(* ‘m' shape hand movement for frothing up macha (powdered green tea) with a bamboo whisk)
Bob Heffill