There is a proper way to do everything, and it is important to do everything properly!
These are the hands of Kiyoko Tokutomi slicing green onions
that will be part of the meal she is preparing for us at the Machmiller beach house
when Mr. Masahisa Fukuda, the scholar and renku expert (His haiku name was Shinku!)
visited during the Yuki Teikei Haiku Retreat at Asilomar. It was in 1998, I think.
Kiyoko also knew there was a proper way to write haiku; she continued to write
haiku in Japanese, although she lived in America for most of her adult life.
The haiku in the book below were originally written in Japanese and published in
a haiku journal there. They were translated by Patricia Machmiller and Fay Aoyagi;
the book was published shortly before she died, and she was able to read from it
at the Yuki Teikei holiday party in late 2002.
Autumn in the air--
from morning on, pieces of cloud
tear off and scatter
In a deep ravine
a car has been abandoned--
autumn sky so high
Kiyoko Tokutomi
from Kiyoko's Sky,
Brooks Books, 2002,
pages 79 and 43.
Editor's Note: I have plans to keep
adding content to this blog.
Plans are just plans, but better
than nothing...
