poetic fragment op.2

(photo) untitled

GAZA 2009

The poem isn’t here.
So this is not a poem.
Where is the poem?
In the sticking?
In the spilling-out?
In the opening?

The poem isn’t here.

Woman's eyes
A collapsing back
Scattered sandals
The silence of the sky

I cannot
laugh,
lament,
sing,
or feel anger.

Snow in the night
is dizziness.
The Galaxy in winter
is tinnitus.

poetic fragment op.1

(photo) untitled

Outside

I think about the time for no one.
It comes out in flowers

and vanishes in rain.
It doesn’t bring any results or any causes.
It’s outside every meaning.

I think I know
the time for no one is
for Creator’s laughing.
We can only hear it

in the trembling of wisteria flowers.
We can only see it
when a frog jumps into the pond.

A child is playing in the garden.

The big one (1997) by Michael Moore

(photo) cluster amaryllises in a cemetery, in Ohta, Gunma prefecture, Japan



The big one is a funny title. When Michael had a conversation with BBC staffs, he called the US the big one for a laugh against the Great Britain of the UK. Yet the title symbolizes the essence of the US and its businesses that they cannot help expanding their powers. Probably that could be a character of the capitalist system.

The theme of this movie is issues of unemployment, especially in the big businesses. Michael is traveling around the US, promoting his book. He is interviewing with both employers and employees in the businesses in the state which he visits. He reveals big businesses are moving manufacturing bases overseas, though they are making big profits in the US. The employers usually say that moving manufacturing bases is necessary for keeping their competing power. But he asks why they don't care their employees in the US.

At the end of the movie he interviews with the president of Nike. He asks," Why do you employ 14 years young girls for low payments in Indonesia? Why do you cooperate with the military government to exploit young people? " The president replies," A part of them will be able to get ahead." This is the president's thought through all his life. Michael comments," So what?" This is his thought through all the movie.

I think this movie succeeds to express the greed of the big businesses, but he can't explain why the employers becomes greedy from the historical and social structural point of view. That means if he can express the issues of unemployment from these point of view, his criticism would be more fundamental.

Anyway I'm deeply impressed in that his movie is full of laughter, dealing with these serious problems.

SICKO(2007) by Michael Moore

(photo) one of the oldest temples in Japan, in Kohyasan, Wakayama prefecture



Sicko deals with a serious problem but is full of laughs. Michael's approach is new and interesting for using emails from citizens to make the movie. It could be effective for an influential and pressing problem like a health care system because everyone has experienced it and have their own opinions. Michael is pointing out many issues in the health care system in US seasoned with wit, humor, and sometimes black humor, comparing with one in other western countries such as Canada, UK, and France. Some people say Michael has anti-American feeling, but I think he is certainly one of the most patriotic persons because a fundamental criticism can advance a society rightly. He seems to ask us the questions which is important, human lives or money, and which should be emphasized, the profit of an individual or the happiness of a society as a whole. These questions must be meaningful for everyone living in capitalist societies.

Haiku in English(10)

(photo) The bell tower, in Kohyasan, Wakayama prefecture, Japan

not seeing
the room is white
until that red apple

ANITA VIRGIL, US

The apple's red color stings our eyes though red is just a word. The contrast is so clear that we can even feel like being in the white room. Moreover we can feel the largeness of the room with the word apple. This haiku seems to show us how mysterious the relationship between languages and imagination is.

Haiku in English(9)

(photo) the great gate, in Kohyasan, Wakayama prefecture, Japan



the homeless man
takes off his shoes before
his cardboard house

Penny Harter, US

I was very surprised to read this haiku first. It succeeds to express cultural essence Japanese people have through a homeless man. Most Japanese haiku poets don't think a homeless man is the theme of haikus. In this way, this haiku is new. Actually, I've tried to craft homeless haikus as follows:

feeling deeply moved by
the back of a homeless man―
a sneeze

barefoot sandals of
a homeless man―
Christmas

presenting sake
to a homeless man―
December

Journalism and powers

(photo) one of the oldest temples in Japan, in Kohyasan, Wakayama prefecture





At last the condition of a change of administration has been established in Japan. Many people, especially young people, have wished the day for a long time. Generally speaking, I think, the journalism often plays an important role in changing a government in advanced societies. But the newspapers in Japan have not had the ability to criticize drastically the powers yet, including political power, economical powers, and religious power. I've discussed this problem with a journalist and I've found that the Japanese own delivering system affects the journalism, that delivers a newspaper to each subscriber every morning and evening. Newspapers don't have to compete with each other at stands about their information vales and analysis abilities because the system ensure the stability of their managements. The ruling party, many businesses, and religious groups consider newspapers are one of the most effective advertisement media that they may inject big money into. Newspaper companies also consider the money to be essential to run. And they want to maintain and enlarge the system so that they come to conform to the majority of the readers. In this context, newspaper cannot criticize powers thoroughly. I think the role of newspapers is very important for the mature of democracy. How far can the cyberdemocracy deal with the issue?

Reading Robert Frost(6)

(photo) blue morning glories, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan



Desert Places

Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast
In a field I looked into going past,
And the ground almost covered smooth in the snow,
But a few weeds and stubble showing last.

The woods around it have it-it is theirs.
All animals are smothered in their lairs.
I am too absent-spirited to count;
The loneliness includes me unawares.

And lonely as it is that loneliness
Will be more lonely ere it will be less-
A blanker whiteness of benighted snow
With no expression, nothing to express.

They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars-on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.



I think the key word of this poem is snow. Frost sees it as something negative. The snow makes him feel lonely and think it has no expression and nothing to express. The snow triggers him to imagine the empty spaces between stars and reminds him of his desert places in his mind. This poem is so dark. But I think Frost had a courage to listen to himself truthfully.

Reading Robert Frost(5)

(photo) a working man at the river, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan


Neither Out Far Nor In Deep


The people along the sand
All turn and look one way.
They turn their back on the land.
They look at the sea all day.

As long as it takes to pass
A ship keeps raising its hull;
The wetter ground like glass
Reflects a standing gull.


The land may vary more;
But wherever the truth may be―
The water comes ashore,
And the people look at the sea.


They cannot look out far.
They cannot look in deep.
But when was that ever a bar
To any watch they keep?


This is an interesting poem. There is a comparison between the sea and the land. The land symbolizes something that varies and the sea not varies. I think the poem expresses Frost's despair about civilization on the land. And he seems to try to search for hope in the sea without looking out far and looking in deep. The sea is the beginning of life and the end of life. Frost appears to be a pessimist but actually could be an optimist and humorist, reading the last two lines.

Reading Robert Frost(4)

(photo) an althaes called "sokobeni", that Rikyu(1522-1591）, a master of ceremonial tea, loved very much, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, japan




Acquainted With The Night


I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain ―and back in rain.
I have outwalked the further city light.

I hve looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-by;
And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.


We have been afraid of the night since the ancient age and managed to conquer it by various technologies. But the night and silence is the nature of the universe. The night doesn't have nothing, but the moon, namely time. I think those who are acquainted with the night might appreciate the solemnity of the universe beyond right and wrong.

Reading Robert Frost(3)

(photo) She is relaxed, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan


Dust of Snow


The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.


I like this poem. It often happens but we don't try to make poem on it. I think poets can find out poesie in the ordinary life. The theme of this poem is the interaction between the nature and human being. It reminds me that we are part of the nature. The nature is often the trigger that makes us break through the difficulties. Japanese mathematician OKA kiyoshi( 1901-1978）could solve the difficult mathematical question as soon as he saw the beautiful sea from his car.

Reading Robert Frost(2)

(photo) everyone has some reasons for being what he is, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan


Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.



I guess the poem expresses the dawn in the early spring. In this moment, the first green is coloured gold and the early leaf looks like a flower. I think the author has fine sensibility to the nature. But he seems to be sad because the moment is so short. Nothing gold can stay. Our lives are also short like the gold appearing in the dawn. But I like his thought 'nothing gold can stay.' It means something gold can't stay but it appears in the world again and again. I think our lives are also something gold in this sense.

Haiku in English(8)

(photo) red flowers in June, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan

Can words be as still
As the motionless trees,
In this solstice time?

John Bate, England

■I interpreted the phrase " in this solstice time" as the dynamism of the nature or the universe. Both of them are silent. Only human beings are noisy. The author compares words with the motionless trees. Words can't be as still as the trees. That's probably what he's saying. But how silent this haiku is!

Haiku of Jack Kerouac(13)

(photo) Houttuynia cordata, Matsudo, Chiba prefecture

2 travelling salesmen
passing each other
On a Western road

■This haiku symbolizes the American society very well. Salesmen are an essencial element in the capitalist society and the phrase "passing each other on a Western road" expresses wide-open spaces in U.S. I think this haiku has a loneliness in the modern world. Where did 2 salesmen go after passing each other?

Reading Robert Frost(1)

(photo) a sleeping man, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan


Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.



■This poem predicts the contemporary world. I think fire symbolizes evil human behaviors, especillay the war and ice the fear of the nature, the chage of climate in the modern terms. The two phrases "From what I've tasted of desire" and " I think I know enough of hate" are probably a pair. I can understand the relationship between fire and desire, but I can't hate and ice. This hate may mean human's hate for the nature or human's control over the nature as a thing or a object. The author is talking about the end of the world but it sounds like something humorous. I feel that he had a crude look at human beings. This poem reminds me of Issa's following haiku.

We are skeleton bones

even though we are here like this

the air in the evening

Haiku in English(7)

(photo) red flowers at the window, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan


Memories of sea
now have another master―
pearl necklace pawned

Clelia Ifrim
Bucharest, Romania

■The phrase memories of sea is beautiful. I think it means the author's memories and the pearl's. The pearl necklace that is memories both of her and sea have to have another master- pawnbroker. Did he feel guilty at robbing her of the treasure called memories?

Haiku in English(6)

(photo) red flowers, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan

nothing
to show for today
cassiopeia

John Martone
IL, U.S.A

■I feel vanity but this vanity means tiny thing because the author uses the word cassiopeia. Every human behavior is tiny bofore the great universe.

Haiku in English(5)

(photo) walking in the morning, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan

The jumping dolphines
their wet backbones reflecting
sunshine.

Frano Vlatkovic, Croatia

■It's a dynamic haiku. I can imagine the scene clearly. Verbs always play the important role in haikus because they express lives in the nature, including human beings. Lives never stop but are always moving. The words jumping and reflecting are used effectively in this haiku.

Haiku in English(4)

(photo) azalias, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan


In the front of sign-post
on a hot street
a snake halts.

Franno Vlatkovic, Croatia

■It's humorous because the snake apparently could read the sign-post. This haiku indicates the season of summer distinctly by the word a hot street. It's the rare case in the foreign haikus.

Haiku of Jack Kerouac(12)

(photo) azaleas, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan


Dusk―the bird
on the fence
A contemporary of mine

■It's humorous and the author apparently feels familiar to the bird. His feeling resembles that of Issa, a famous Japanese haijinn in 18th century, who concidered small animals around him as his friends. He dindn't make a clear distinction between animals and human beings because he thought he could be reincarnated as an animal in the next life and the small animal that was before him could probably have been as a human in its previous birth. His thought was strongly influenced by the thought of the cycles of life in Buddhism. By the way, most Japanese people tend to believe in the though even now. It is true that is unscientific but the science has controlled, managed, and ruled the nature as tools, including human beings. We could have to use the science to coexist with the nature that has the same life as ours.

Haiku of Jack Kerouac(11)

(photo) fresh green, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan



Early morning yellow flowers
―Thinking about
The drunkars of Mexico

■I'm interested in the combination of yellow flowers and the drunkars. I think yellow flowers symbolize the drunkars of Mexico. I guess there were some yellow flowers around the drunkars when he traveled in Mexico. Dash is used effectively. Before Dash, he descibes the real world and after dash, the world in his mind.

Haiku in English(3)

(photo) early summer flowers, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan


Father's Day
somewhere in the crematorium
there is a rose

John Parsons
Bungay, U.K

■I'm impressed by a rose. I think this rose is red. People place a white rose on their Father's grave in Father's day. But in this case, there is a rose somewhere in the crematorium. I think the author wants to make a rose symbolize the Father's life. A red rose means passion and love. His life could be full of passion and love too. Mybe the author imagine the scene in Father's Day, remenbering his father.

Haiku in English(2)

(photo) the good old days, in Shiraoka, Saitama prefecture, Japan


Before the rain
The wind dies down―
I compose my thoughts

Dragan J. Ristic, Serbia

■I think this haiku grasps the silent moment in the nature. Generally speaking, we can see some thoughts in our behaviors but not necessarily see some behaviors in our thoughts. His thouhgts could be independant of his behaviors. What thoughts did he start to have?

Haiku in English(1)

(photo)Iris, in Shiraoka, Saitama prefecture, Japan

cassiopeia
the drive-in movie's
lonely

John Martone
IL, USA

■This is a nice haiku. I feel deep lonliness of our spesies in the universe. I think it interested that it is near to Japanese haikus that avoid explanations.

Haiku of Jack Kerouac(10)

(photo) early summer red flowers, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture,　Japan


The white chair is
holding its arms out
to Heaven―dandelions

■I can imagine the white chair is so comfortable. The auhtor may take a nap on it. The word dandelions is used effectively. The colour white symbolize the Heaven and his peaceful mind. And the dandelions seem to express the small but valuable happiness. In this way they are similar to violets that are often concidered as a symbol of familiarity and happiness in Japanese literatures. But Japanese haiku poets would write dandelion, not dandelions. The differnce is very interesting between the feelings of number. Japanese haiku tends to concentrate on the one thing, and English, German, and French haiku tend to express wide space in plural nouns.

Haiku of Jack Kerouac(9)

(photo) recorder player in the early summer park, in Matsudo, Chiba prefectre, Japan


Spring night―
the neighbor hammering
in the new old house

■The new old house means the new old-fashoned house. On one hand , Spring night is full of the scent of many different flowers, and singns of lives. On the other hand, we feel melancholy in spring night. Mybe our body can't adjust to the changing climate from winter to spring. The sound of the neighbor's hammering sounds familiar and melancholy.

Haiku of Jack Kerouac(8)

(photo) early summer flowers, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan



After the shower
the red roses
in the green, green


■I think it beautiful to constract between the red of roses and the green of trees. This haiku is simple but is well elaborated. the phrase after the shower is effective. It describes the newer world after the shower using simple phrase of in the green, green.

Haiku of Jack Kerouac(7)

(photo) children born to play under the fresh green, in Higashiohmiya, Saitama prefecture, Japan


The full moon ―
the cat gone ―
My sleeping mother

■I feel interested in the contrast between the cat gone and my sleeping mother. The cat has gone out in the moonlight, but my mother is still sleeping. My of my mother means the author standing near to his mother in the room, seeing the scene. The full moon seems to keep an eye on the cat and the mother.

Haiku of Jack Kerouac(6)

(photo) fresh green, in Higashiohmiya, Saitama prefecture, Japan



The tree moving
in the moonlight
Wise to me

■This haiku is interestiong. I think there could be some interpretations on the haiku. It reminds me of the story by MIYAZAWA Kenji, famous Japanese poet and story teller.
He wrote an amusing story that a line of telegraph poles maches along the country road in the moonlight.