In 2007 the Kyoto-based Hailstone Haiku Circle to which I belong published a volume of Shinto poems entitled Seasons of the Gods, co-edited by the group’s leader Stephen Gill with three others. Here is a selection.
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new year…
stars on the branches
of mountain trees
– Duro Jaiye
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Bowing twice,
How white the breath:
Clapping sounds at dawn
– Misawo Nagao
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Rock or tree?
Hard and twisted…
A dragon god appears!
– Arietty
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azurite eve –
in the hoot of a hawk owl
the forest speaks
– Keiko Yurugi
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to the universe
from a sealed cocoon –
one brilliant thread!
– Michiko Suzuki
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;
In the stone fox’s mouth
still folded
a message from the god
– Mizuho Shibuya
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Two claps at the shrine
And the year’s first dragonfly
Takes flight
– JD
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Larches bent
by long snowstorm years –
in a garden of the gods
– Akito Mori
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the small stone summit shrine –
as the rocks nearby, covered
by the same lichen
– Hisashi Miyazaki
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Having climbed Fuji,
My shadow stretches into
The form of a giant man
– Nobuyuki Yuasa
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Moon. Shrine.
The raked white sand
glows in the dark
– Ellis Avery
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floods of people
through the shrine gate
courtly music
this sultry eve
– Mari Kawaguchi
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No autumn sunrise –
Both crow and red torii
Drip with mist
– Tito
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sweeping the shrine paths
does he see the mantis
atop his rake?
– Richard Steiner
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Some of the Hailstones group on a recent outing
The Hailstone Haiku Circle has a webpage called Icebox. See http://hailhaiku.wordpress.com/
Seasons of the Gods was co-edited by Stephen Gill, Duro Jaiye, Hisashi Miyazaki and Jane Wieman.
Orders can be made here: http://hailhaiku.wordpress.com/publications/
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