Caught in the act!

looking up
above the seat in front
a child’s eyes



sunlight breaks
on a bird
and its portion of the roof

hi   wa   torini   yane   no   ibasho   ni   sosogi   keri

Trans. Hiromi Inoue
Ehime Prefecture, Japan

sunlit

down side streets -
seagulls turning the sky
in and out

The New Haiku Snapshot Press ISBN 1-903543-03-7
Presence #10 (haiku magazine) 1999

Oppo} sunlit overlooking Park Street room

dusty lens

city café garden
a robin pecks the joints
between bricks

Oppo} has a nice little courtyard too!

down the sidewalk
an old vagrant
with daisies in his mouth

Hobo #21
NSW, Australia 1999

bend in the road

low over the hill
a red moon waxes ...
the empty road ahead

"Moonlighting"
Intimations Pamphlet Series
British Haiku Society Profile 1996

Azami 1997 Special Spring/Summer Edition
Osaka, Japan publication, Issue Editor: Alan Summers

sundog haiku journal: an australian year
sunfast press 1997 reprinted 1998
California State Library - Main Catalog Call Number : HAIKU S852su 1997

haiku poetry residency in Bristol

partial eclipse
the sky darkens then lightens
my cappuccino



I'm the Oppo} Cafe Poet in Residence and you can catch me
Thursdays & Fridays 1-2pm

Ask me about haiku & let me see any haiku you’ve written
"in a friendly haiku coffee break"
If you can stay longer, the next 5 minutes is free.

water & rocks

three white-faced heron
turn
to be lost to blue

Matsuyama sunset

white sails ...
a wind has also shaped
the tree

Mainichi Shimbun haiku column, Japan
June 2005

haiku competition @ the Oppo}

cabbage butterfly
in and out of nettlebeds
a girl’s laughter

inter-city train journey -
a rattling window top
shuts itself

Tinywords.com 2004
Tinywords website

Presence #15 (haiku journal) September 2001
Presence haiku journal website

Basho's Summer Grasses

I found this hanging up on a wall in a Japanese cafe:

The summer grass -
'Tis all that's left
Of ancient warriors' dreams.

Inazo Nitobe

No mention of Basho as the author of the original Japanese poem on the poster, or that this is a translation.

When I Googled, I found that Inazo Nitobe, the famous Bushido author, did translate this, and the poster simply leaves off Basho's name as the original author.

Cache:
Daily Yomiuri, Early summer rain falls, temple of light shine

Japanese Reference Site:
Summer Grasses & Samurai Glossary


I visited the area where Basho wrote about in his Summer Grasses haiku, but alas there was no marker to the famous haiku & battle.

Summer grasses,
All that remains
Of soldiers’ dreams

ON LOVE AND BARLEY, HAIKU OF BASHO Matsuo Basho - Author, Lucien Stryk - Translator

The romanised version (romaji):

Natsukusa ya
Tsuwamonodomo ga
Yume no ato



Another Summer grasses haiku, and powerful in its context of the dawning of the industrial age in Japan is:

summer grasses—
the wheels of the locomotive
come to a stop

YAMAGUCHI Seishi (1901 - 1994)
translated by Takashi Kodaira and Alfred H. Marks

The Essence of Modern Haiku - haiku by Yamaguchi Seishi

A Sample Page of The Essence of Modern Haiku including notes plus Japanese characters and romaji

half-empty café
she touches again
the cellophaned flowers

This way to the cat

through binoculars
the gleam of sunlight
a greenfinch’s beak

down side streets -
seagulls turning the sky
in and out

Japanese street band!

boom bass-
in out of workmen’s hammers
lesser celedines

These guys were just jamming outside a Japanese shopping centre one night; they didn't play for money, just for the craic.

Deborah Russell, American haiku poet joins me, but refrains from any air guitar!

frogs, the sign of Spring!

saigyo's willow -
the sound of purple
within a frog

her black hair
catching sunlight
on his shoulder