Seventh Day: Haiku poetry showcase by Alan Summers at Cornell University USA

A month of haiku poems by Alan Summers at Cornell University USA
 
Cornell University, Mann Library
Supporting learning and research in the life sciences, agriculture, human ecology and applied social sciences: http://mannlib.cornell.edu/


Toshugu shrine pines
I try to stay as still -
mist and dew

東照宮の 松静か 霧と露

haiku by Alan Summers
Japanese translation: Hidenori Hiruta (Akita, Japan)

Toshugu Shrine:
I visited in 2001 following in the footsteps of Basho.   Toshugu Shrine is the resting place of Togukawa Ieyasu, founder of the Togukawa Shogunate. Basho and Sora visited on the First Day of the Fourth Month (the first day of summer). Mist and dew are kigo for Spring and Autumn, which I use as a metaphor for our beginnings and endings, and our lives inbetween. An allusion is made to Basho’s famous saying about learning from the pine.

Tablet on torii at Toshogu, Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Tablet bears the inscription ''Tōsh&#333 Gongen'' (the posthumous name of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Calligraphy by Emperor Go-Mizunoo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NikkoToriiTablet5127.jpg

I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide.
In some countries this may not be legally possible; if so:
I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.
 

How One Writes in the Haiku Moment: Mythos vs. Logos
William M. Ramsey
Roadrunner (Issue IX:2 2009)
http://www.roadrunnerjournal.net/pages92/essay92.htm


Toshugu shrine pines Publications credits:
World Haiku Review, Japan Article - Vending machines and cicadas (March 2003); Hermitage (Romania 2005); Travelogue on World Haiku Festival 2002 Part 1 (Akita International Haiku Network 2010); We Are All Japan (Karakia Press  2012); The In-Between Season (With Words Pamphlet Series 2012)

.