Jan

4

after school

a lively flurry of leaves—

at the bus stop

7

all night long

Brother North Wind banging

at the door

BOREAS [Brother North Wind] was the purple-winged god of the north wind, one of the four directional Anemoi (wind-gods). He was also the god of winter. Here's a North American Indian take on this wonderful mythology that links us to the winter (a kigo, in the fuller sense of a seasonal reference, which connotes cultural artifacts as well as natural history's calendrical page-turns) : "There were four brothers in a family that lived in a huge cave on the top of a high mountain in the present state of Maine. One brother was North-wind, one South-wind, another West-wind, and the other one East-wind. They were the ones who made all of the winds blow. . . ." more

8

Limericotanka...

there once was a tree by a pool

that thought that the pool was a fool

but the fool was a dream

in a dream of a stream

and the water, though static, was cool

9

wing mirror spider

your little winter pot plant

is awake!

14

looking up,

through winter stars- so big

it's real

13

1500 miles,

that's when Basho wandered north—

not quite in frosty England

Basho's famous long walk is the 1500 miles. The first paragraph and the full text, respectively on the links below, enjoy, , , ,

1 http://www.bopsecrets.org/gateway/passages/basho-oku.htm 2 http://terebess.hu/english/haiku/matsuo.html

"No matter where your interest lies, you will not be able to accomplish

anything unless you bring your deepest devotion to it." -Matsuo Basho

14

On a journey,

Resting beneath the cherry blossoms,

I feel myself to be in a Noh play.

— Basho

14

Limericotanka. . . .

there once was a brave little swallow

who was born in a little clay hollow

one day on the edge

it honoured its fledge

and then all the rest they did follow!

:)

15

stock-still to stare,

seems my toes also they grow long—

frosty trees

As a one-time professional musician (and a left-hander, to boot) things tend to pop out fully formed, or soon re-organised correctly, intuitively (if my left-brain is relaxed onto the back-burner, that is). What does this mean here?Well (as discovered as a reader, to 'grok' (understand) my own haiku, a product of the 'wayless' way' wilderness offering here (see: Bashō's Hero: Zhuangzi (Chuang-Tzu, 369—298 BCE) - the balance to Lao Tzu's 'The Way' -of Tao- and which I have balanced with my own 'wayward way' - at the centre of that continuum's slide-rule, previously unknown, albeit so obvious), then L2 is built -instinctively- on a rhythmic metric which 'musically' visions the growing process of a plant's root tendril, in this example a tree in winter. Check it out and 'see'. . . . (But, do beware of 'feeling' the woods root symphony -especially on a frosty morning, as the day star rises out of its dark bed ... ! ) [Zoka's 'engine'] — jp

16

sliding over the view,

Great Orion and his little dog—

icy ginko

space dragon - sound of water

17

Ice Moon—

seems the eye of a space dragon

skims earth. . . .

18

alone 'pon frosty hills

and yet, hidden in dawn's melt—

so many

19

"Helios, the god of the sun, is a great healer," Cedalion said. "I would like to take you to him and ask for his help. May I do that?" Orion nodded, and they set off on a journey to the east.

/

night's doppelgänger

he walks slowly behind, again—

black ice

20

Ice Moon,

under the goldfinch tree—

silently

"Go to the pine if you want to learn about pine, or to the bamboo if you want to learn about bamboo. And in doing so, you must leave your subjective preoccupation with yourself." — Basho "The pine tree is chastity, the bamboo is strength the plum tree is purity. The three friends have a spiritual relationship, they forget the time of year [winter]." — Jiaqing Emperor[There's not a lot about Nippon plant symbolism (which would enhance a 'foreigners' appreciation of their literature, especially haiku). However, China (which Japan culture is well rooted in). . . . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_garden#Flowers_and_trees this also and interestingly references 'the three friends' of the emperors quote.

21

icy in headlights

seems the white line stitches

Salisbury Plain

surfing a brainwave,

3am Saturday 21 January 2012—

time to crash

22

23

winter puddle—

something looks back,

closer, peering...

NOTE: The above haiku of mine is a conscious reference to Matsuo's enigmatic take (honkadori). . . .

looking carefully...

a shepherd's purse is blooming

under the fence

— Basho

23

As a chilly winter's evening is falling I lean on a gate and watch a queue of Charolaise calves at the door of their shelter. It's the last two to go in and the line has gridlocked. Patiently the tail-ender, with its head down at the penultimate one's bum, patiently waits. And waits. And waits. Then, to my utter amusement, the final calf suddenly raises its head and side-swipes its slow companion across the buttocks. This does the trick and the queue moves along.

getting to know

another batch of winter calves—

spring's hot pies

I read somewhere once that the first concepts of deity, and the very meaning of existence itself, was food. That was it. The early Vedas, as I recall. This notion evolved; or the truth was revealed (that the priests had previously withheld, for whatever reasons priests do that).

the calves and I,

in the farmer's icy field—

our breath

The point is this. Calves are people too. I eat pies. The soil will eat me. In the gap (betwixt coming and going), we all get to share in this astonishing miracle of existence. No problemo. Maybe the ancient Vedas had it to rights - after all is said, and all is done.

24

hot bath time,

in my English village igloo—

doin' de gekko shuffle!

Existence:

nothingness

in motion...

25

It's been very cold days and something is changing. Almost imperceptibly. I'm not worried about this; well, not really. It's enantiodromia, is all. It is a surprise, though. The realisation that when we stop dreaming we also stop the anthropomorphising illusion of ourselves. And, it may be, that this is the crossroads of a nescient vampire, or a demon, bound for the melancholy hunting grounds of outer darkness.

as if...

spring's green dream

ice blue

ENANTIODROMIA "The propensity of polarised objects to swing to their opposite." — jp [Yin yang is a well known symbol which deals with this.] Thus do the seasons turn and all things change according to their environmentally interrelated mutual velocity.

The above haibun's text resonates a honkodori (literary allusion). one of my favourite crime writers wrote a novel about a serial killer. The last paragraph. . . .

"It's over now. I will not submit to the duration of my sentence. With this valediction in blood completed, my transit in human for has peaked, and to subsist past it is unacceptable. Scientists say that all matter disperses into unrecognisable but pervasive energy. I intend to find out, by turning myself inward and shutting down my senses until I implode into a space beyond all laws, all roadways, all speed limits. In some dark form I will continue." — Silent Terror by James Ellroy - Avon, 1986

Eye of the bee (hence: Geodesic_eye).

There's only one choice in this life. This choice can manifest in many ways and its basic engine is makato (ultra-sinceriy).

[Vedaesque effulgence: 1.75mins] Makato requires a relationship with absolute courage. Absolute courage is unattainable, this is why relationship with absolute courage. To attain absolute courage is to cease to exist. To cease to exist is the purpose of all manifest things. All manifest things are called forth to achieve annihilation. To achieve annihilation is to have it all. To have it all is to become reborn. To become reborn is to have purpose. To have purpose is to experience. To experience is to secure the absolute authority of omniscience. The absolute authority of omniscience is guaranteed by limitation. For, dear little tadpoles, how can boundless source be omniscient if not for this? — jp

25

in 3D,

moving from room to room—

Ice Moon

26

in hill mist

with some winter sheep—

I think

26

crescent Wolf Moon—

vision of Rex, his delight

in dead fish

27

only 5 squid

for a ton of squid—

bootsale, sleet

I think this one is a bit above their heads. It's not like a Japanese Buddhist temple setting a few hundred years ago in fairyland. Works for me though. It's on the boundary between a senryu and a haiku. Of course, it references the fish man at our local outdoor flea market. He's trying to up his downward trend, out in the inclement elements, which have driven all the people back to their log fires in the sky, if they bothered to come out in the first place. The clear problem with us here in the consumerism-driven West is that we have lost contact with our 'folk heritage', our mythic consciousness. It's been traded for Greco-Roman pragmatism which has turned us all into prisoners of the bookworm god. We are quite literally fixated and hypnotised by theoretical knowledge, to the virtual exclusion of any contact whatsoever with vivacious nature and its relentless seasonal carousel. This is why 'proper' haiku (not the West's synthetic reflection of its own cartoon visage in the mirror), is the word. — jp

28

icy dawn,

a crocodile of cows

steam

28

'pon yon sleit hills

vision ye wind-blasted haijin

chasin' his bonnit

30

"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the

glint of light on broken glass." ~ Anton Chekhov

30

where'd they go?

yesterday's noisy bushes—

silence of snow

30

lollapalooza!

the dawn chorus

on ice

—

Thank You!

Thanks for reading this month's haiku diary, and thanks for being a regular visitor to geodesic_eye!

Be sure to check our sister site: sound of water and our daily updated Facebook page (see below).

ON TO : Feb

♪

VISIT HAIKU CROSSROADS

— here —

HAIKU LESSONS?

(press the happy tortoise)

—