Basho Journey Haiku

VOLUME 3, ISSUE 1 - MARCH 2003

Haiku Treasure Trove is a feature designed to present a variety: relatively unknown haiku or haiku poets, and excellent haiku and related poetry, whether by known or unknown authors, which has not been widely read or even seen by others than the author and perhaps, a few close friends or family members. We also wish to create a stronger bridge between haiku poets and non-haiku poets, as well as those poets who write in several genres, haiku being just one of the forms of their interest.

Bruce Ross, haiku poet, editor and author edited the well-known Haiku Moment: An Anthology of Contemporary North American Haiku; he has worked in the development of Western haibun through his book and magazine publications as well as his own poems, some of which may be found in various issues of World Haiku Review.. Last year, Bruce gave an online seminar on the art of haibun writing: The World Haiku Club Haibun Workshop and Double Haibun Contest. The winning haibun from the contest with his comments are in Volume 2, Issue 2.

A participant in WHC's Oku-no-Hosomichi (Basho Journey) and WHF2002 held in Japan during September 2002, Bruce could often be seen jotting in his notebook, recording his thoughts and haiku along the way. In this issue is his haibun commemorating his visit to "Ryushaku-ji"; his haibun, "Ungan-ji" can be found in Volume 2, Issue 3, November 2002. We are pleased to present his series written during the trek from Tokyo to Akita, "Basho Journey Haiku.

Basho Journey Haiku

Preface:

taxi pick-up

under the autumn stars

no one stands here

Tokyo night

hiragana reflected in

a skyscraper window

first breakfast

too many strange things

in my bento box

overcast day

a salaried man watches

morning traffic

Nikko

the mist rises from

an unknown mountain

all night rain

lying next to me

shadow of my face

cold drizzles

as if part of the rice paddy

squatting crows

much too pitted

to recognize at first

old roadside Kannon

Uganji

on each needle of the old pine

a drop of rain

hollyhocks

in turn the grasshopper’s antennae

up and down

Matsushima

even the dried-out bonsai

have their beauty

Matsushima

so far out to sea

seaweed planting poles

Matsushima

even through the rain

Matsushima

morning rain

a bamboo fence to hold in

a bamboo grove

mist-filled dusk . . .

through Ryushaku-ji’s stillness

a lone cricket’s voice

autumn sunlight

a stink bug walks its shadow

on the tatami

Mogami River

a heron as still as the rock

it stands on

autumn wind

open blue sky through

the dragonfly’s wings

too ugly

for any but this doorstep

malformed pumpkin

Haguro-san

again the dragonfly hovers over

the same pond weeds

Gassan

how lonely the little pond

in cloud mist

Yudanosan

for lichen-covered Ametaresu

blue autumn sky

Sea of Japan

the stone Buddha’s face all but

worn away

dry autumn leaves

an old man sits down

to write his haiku

autumn light

in old paper boxes

drying beans

autumn light

sparkling more as it rises

the dragonfly’s wings

Soto gravestone

fallen to the offering stand

lichen-covered bark

autumn wind

joined as one or alone

floating dragonflies

old autumn graveyard . . .

grave after grave Buddha’s face

worn away

harvested rice field

from somewhere in its middle

a simple cricket

night flight

until the bright moon

and its halo

Coda:

early autumn clouds

the red pine needles

on the skylight

Bruce Ross has edited Haiku Moment: An Anthology of Contemporary North American Haiku (1993) and Journey to the Interior, American Versions of Haibun (1998). He has published three collections of original haiku, thousands of wet stones (1988),among floating duckweed (1994), and Silence: Collected Haiku (1997). He also authored How to Haiku, A Student's Guide to Haiku and Related Forms (2001) and is co-editor of the journal "Contemporary Haibun" A past president of the Haiku Society of America, his haiku, senryu, haibun, collaborative renga, haiga, reviews, translations, and articles have appeared in haiku journals worldwide. Holding a Ph.D. in English (poetics, critical theory), Dr. Ross has taught humanities and writing including haiku and haibun, at various colleges and universities, and lectured internationally. He has published in poetics, literary theory, mythology, world religion, and the arts in the scholarly journals of the U.S.A., the Netherlands, and Great Britain. He has recently returned from Alberta, Canada to live in Orono, Maine.