Lovely surprise this morning – the results of the new European Haiku Prize landed in my inbox. No monetary reward, unfortunately, but I had a haiku selected in the Distinguished Poet category (a Commended?) which will appear in the contest anthology.
tea from a rough bowl
we open the window to rain
– Sandra Simpson
Tea-time at Eikando Zenrin Temple in Kyoto. Photo: Sandra Simpson
Staying at a traditional Japanese hotel is a lot of fun – especially when it includes an onsen (in Kiwi parlance, hot pools). Fresh tea and a small ‘cake’ is brought immediately after you’ve arrived in your room and served at the low table. My favourite tea ‘cake’ is the chestnut-paste square, known as tochi-mochi (栃もち), which is, naturally, an autumn treat.
Tochi is Japanese for horse chestnut but – as we should all know – horse chestnuts are the ones that can’t be eaten because they’re toxic. The clever Japanese, though, have found a way around and you can read about that here.
This haiku was written last year while staying at the Yumoto Fujiya Hotel in Hakone and is pretty much as it happened.
Farewell to A Hundred Gourds, an online journal that I shall miss greatly. Lorin Ford has been an excellent haiku editor and her final selection is well worth a read – including three of my own humble efforts. The archives will be available for the foreseeable future so do have a look if you don’t already know this publication.
bull kelp
sliding in and out of sight
a fur seal
– Sandra Simpson
Fur seals frolicking in Otago Harbour. Photo: Sandra Simpson
NZ fur seals were almost obliterated by the coming of people to these islands – the few the Maori left were soon hunted down by European sealers after their skins and blubber. Read more here. Fortunately, sanity finally prevailed and in 1978 kekeno became a protected species. They are now the most common seal sighted and their numbers are growing. Read more here.
Finally, two haiku in the latest issue of The Heron’s Nest, a red-letter day!
cumulonimbus —
the slow grind of continents
beneath my feet
– Sandra Simpson
I’ve had this one around for a little while, but couldn’t get any recognition for it so entered it into an online kukai* that I belong to. One of the participants, whose work I admire enormously, said: “Coming from California I have written many haiku on earthquakes and unsteady ground, and even this knowledge of grinding continents. I will stop. L2 and 3 say it perfectly. The contrast between the smooth glide if clouds is wonderful.” Woohoo!
So I sent it off again, and what do you know? The haiku was written while on a ginko** at Te Puna Quarry Park.
*Kukai = peer-judged contest or workshop. Poems are entered anonymously and participants vote for their favourites (you can’t vote for your own), offering constructive comments as to why they like a haiku or why they think something doesn’t work.
**Ginko = a group walk to observe, take notes, make word sketches and write haiku. Often a kukai at the end.
breath, a collection of haiku 