The raised hand of the Buddha

                          One of the highlights of the trip to Japan in 1997,               jhhymas

was an excursion to Nara to see Todaiji, the Great Buddha Hall.

It is a magnificent huge wooden building, truly awe-inspiring.

A butterfly, 

in the cold: it flies in pursuit

of its own soul

Takahama Kyoshi

(1874-1959)

Modern Japanese Haiku; an anthology, by Makota Ueda, University of Toronto Press, Toronto and Buffalo, 1974, page 56.