Black Bamboo

Mary Hill cultivated a small stand of black bamboo is her back yard. 

It made the perfect place to hang the paper kimonos and poem-papers 

at our Tanabata Celebration; we were able to celebrate here several times.

a bamboo shoot

when I was a child it was

fun to sketch

  

Basho

a cuckoo

in a bamboo thicket

leaking moonlight

  

Basho

Both translations from

Basho; The Complete Haiku

by Jane Reichhold, Kodansha, 2008, page 197

A Gathering

Where else but at the beloved Asilomar?

the spring tide

piercing my entire body

the whistle from a boat

Yamaguchi Seishi

(1901--1994)

Modern Japanese Haiku;

an anthology, compiled, translated 

and with an introduction by

Makoto Ueda, 

University of Toronto Press, 1976, page 159

Tanabata Overlook

High above our daytime worlds we wait for darkness, so we can see The River of Heaven.

Yuki Teikei Haiku Society Annual Tanabata Celebration, 2007.

I read a book--

somewhere within the book

an insect chirps

Tomiyasu Fusei

Modern Japanese Haiku;
an anthology, compiled, translated 

and with an introduction by

Makoto Ueda, 

University of Toronto Press, 1976, page 176

Glance by Glance

      As they move through the water, koi create patterns of varying beauty.       jhhymas


River of Heaven

fishing out
the river of heaven
glance by glance

beneath the highway bridge
all empty swallows' nests

no longer sure
who is the smarter species
after the nature special

my inky thumbprint
on the application form

            Nathan White
            Linda Papanicolaou

Mariposa 23; Haiku Poets of Northern California, 2010.

Continuing with the Star Festival Theme, here is a cooperative
poem modeled on the renku form: three line segments which alternate with two-line verses. It is a wonderful practice to work on one of these with someone else! Just two stanzas can be called a "tan-renga" and is the form Patricia Machmiller and I use for our annual New Year's greeting we end to some of our friends in Japan. Garry Gay invented a six-stanza version called a "Rengay" which many people use. I think you should be able to vary the length depending upon the material and the amount of time you have for writing. Some people compose these via email or postal mail, sending the unfinished poem back and forth like a ping-pong ball. I started one of these by mail and it is still in the air ten years later. Maybe I'll look for it tonight . . .  jhh

Remember your haiku notebook!

This is Carol Steele, a stalwart member of the the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society. 

She has served as President, and is just retiring as the long-time Editor of Geppo, our newsletter. Countless meetings and special events have been ornamented by her Ikebana,

of which she has made a long-time and devoted study.

Here she is shown working on a haiku at our Tanabata celebration 

in the hills above Livermore in 2007.

It is a worthwhile habit to carry a small notebook like this with you

so you can catch haiku impressions when they occur to you.

Tanabata—

so many night lights for

sleeping garden stones

Roger Abe

   

from the Poet's Pages at youngleaves.org

which is the many-layered website of

The Yuki Teikei Haiku Society

(This haiku also appeared in
The mocking bird sings;
1997 YT Member's Anthology, page 11)

The Donkeys of Tanabata

The light is almost gone now and soon we will be able to see the MIlky Way

as our group celebrates Tanabata in the hills above Livermore in July of 2007. 

The donkeys in the next field over are curious about our party, but 

no one has told them the story of the Weaver Girl and the Herdboy yet. 

Tanabata:

my grandfather taught me how

paper kimonos

   

Kiyoko Tokutomi

  

from Kiyoko's Sky; the haiku of Kiyoko Tokutomi,

Brooks Books, 2002, page 21.

Get ready for Tanabata!

For many years, the California group of the YTHS has planned to assemble 

on a weekend near to July 7th to celebrate Tanabata, the Star Festival. 

Kiyoko introduced us to this Japanese celebration.

The ideal location is where is gets dark enough 

to see the Milky Way well, and see if one can pick out the bright stars:

Vega and Altair, who represent lovers separated by a cruel monarch's

diktat that they could only be together one day a year.

During the celebration, we write haiku on slips of paper called tanzaku,

or on paper kimonos, as pictured. 

These poem-papers then are hung on bamboo shoots.

Sometimes, someone brings the bamboo, as we did here.

As we prepare for the reunion of the lovers this week, this blog 

will feature photos and poems from past Tanabata celebrations.

Here is a link to more than you probably want to know about Tanabata, 

but knowledge doesn't really hurt you, does it? I found the origins, 

history, folklore and astrological and calendar information quite fascinating.

as evening deepens

the insect chorus begins

--star festival

june hopper hymas

Note: please accept my apologies 

for the month's pause in this blog.

I am returning with renewed

determination. jhh