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.

Haiku of Jack Kerouac(5)

photo banksia rose



A bottle of wine,
a bishop―
Everything is God

■This is an interesting haiku. At first, I sympathized with his thought "Everything is God." I thought that it could be near to the Japanese way of thinking that " Everything are gods." This Japanese thought or feeling comes to a tolerant society in a way but often deprive people of ability to think about social problems logically or critically.

Haiku of Jack Kerouac(4)

(photo) plum blossoms

Winter―that
sparrow's nest
Still empty

冬　それは
まだ雀の巣が
空ということ

■This haiku is so simple and beautiful. The dash after "Winter" means " MA" or " KIRE." However unfortunately it is used for a specific explanation of winter.

op. 1

(photo) untitled






GAZA 2009

by winter moon

There is not the poem here.
So this is not a poem.
Where is the poem?
In the sticking?
In the spilling-out?
In the opening?

There is not the poem here.

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

I cannot
laugh,
lament,
sing,
and anger.

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

Haiku of Jack Kerouac(3)

(photo) citrus called Yuzu


Mule on the seashore
One thousand foot
Bridge above

海辺のスリッパ
それを跨いだ
一千の足

■I was impressed with his imagination that envisioned one thousand foot from a mule on the seashore. However I cannot understand the reason " one thousand foot bridge", not " one thousand feet bridges" is.

Sound and Vision

Time - Pink Floyd

Haiku of Jack Kerouac(2)

(photo) doves at the Edo River

Apassionata Sonata
― hiballs, gray
Afternoon in October

熱情ソナタ

ハイボール
10月の灰色の午後

■A happy new year.
I'm interested in the difference between the image of October in US and that in Japan. I cannot think October is a gray month. October in Japan is the month that has a clear large blue sky. The phrase " gray Afternoon in October " , I think, has the same kind of feelings as " The October Country" by Ray Bradbury has. I was attracted by the combination of three nouns in this haiku.

Sound and Vision
John Cage Sonata V

Haiku of Jack Kerouac(1)

(photo) The man who is waiting for passing trains on the overpass all afternoon

The clouds are
following each other
into Eternity

雲は
追いつ追われつ
永遠へ

■This haiku sounds to me to have a typical Western thought, using the phrase " into Eternity." I think one of the charms of this work is to express clouds dynamically.

Sound and Vision
Meredith Monk - Gotham Lullaby [experimental / contemporary]

Haiku of Richard Wright(68)

(photo) the mountaintop

That road is empty,
The one leading into hills
In autumn twilight.


その道は行く人なく
一本道の丘また丘
秋の暮


（Housai）
道いつぱいになつて来る牛と出逢つた

Cows coming to me,
Filling the road.

■Wright's haiku reminds me one of Basho:

The road -
Empty and
Autumn twilight.

I imagine a scene that hills ranges over there. I'm attracted to the silence in this haiku. Hohsai's haiku is full of cows. It's humorous.

Haiku of Richard Wright(67)

(photo) walking

A long autumn day:
A wind blowing from the west,
But none from the east.

長き秋の日
西から一陣の風
東からはなにも


（Hohsai）
秋日さす石の上に脊の児を下ろす

On the stone in the autumn sunshine
I put the child
From my back.

■I'm interested in " A long autunm day," because an autumn day in Japan is very short. The rhythm is impressed that " A wind blowing from the west, But none from the east" has. I think Hohsai's haiku has affection for the child. It seems to me that it was in a cold autumn day that he created the haiku.

Haiku of Richard Wright(66)

(photo) autumn leaves

From the scarecrow's sleeve
A tiny green leaf unfolds
On an oaken arm.

案山子の袖
そのオークの腕に
青い葉が一枚生えている

（Hohsai）
案山子の顔をこう書いてやらう

Let's make
The face of the scarecrow
Like this.

■Wright and Hohsai have good sense of humour. In particular, Wright finds humour in the scarecrow itself. I'm very impressed by his oaken scarecrow.

Haiku of Richard Wright(65)

(Photo) a laughing woman

Like a fishhook,
The sunflower's long shadow
Hoves in the lake.

釣竿のように
向日葵の長い影が
湖に伸びる

（Hohsai）
静かなるかげを動かし客に茶をつぐ

Moving calm shadow,
I pour the tea
For my visitor.


■Wright described " a fishhook," not " a fishing rod." It is inexplicable to me because a fishhook cannot make long shadow. But I think he successfully expressed the silence of the lake in a summer afternoon. On the other hand, Hohsai's calm shadow is moving. I'm interested in the state of his shadow.