Soka Matsubara

Leaf 319 – Reflections

 

Last year I went on another of my poetic pilgrimages in search of the haiku master, Matsuo Bashō. I have previously visited several sites in different parts of Japan connected to, or commemorating Bashō, such as Matsushima (see here). But this was my first time to visit Soka Matsubara, a pleasant paved walkway lined with pine trees on the Ayase River in north-eastern Tokyo, which was created to mark the first stopping point on Bashō’s famous route as recorded in his travel diary, ‘Oku no Hosomichi’ (‘Narrow Road to the Deep North’), in 1689. While Bashō set out in spring, I visited Soka Matsubara at the start of autumn – a reality the following paired-poems reflect, but also one which is mirrored in the realisation that I am now several years older than Bashō was when he set out on this, probably his most famous journey. ‘Matsubara’  means ‘pine grove.’ 

 

 

Soka Matsubara

shading the river

into autumn.

 

***

 

Following the ink flow –

Bashō and Sora

travelling north.

 

 

 

Photographs by Tim Chamberlain

Long Shadows

Leaf 318 – Reflections

 

Tabuchi Toshio - Aki Hazeru (Autumn Explosion)

Each autumn, it seems, there is always more to look back upon.

 

 

Long shadows

reaching back to summer

– evening light.

 

 

 

This poem was originally written and posted on Bluesky in response to a #haikufeels writing prompt: 'long.'

So Far

Leaf 317 – Reflections

 

Idō Masao - Silence (静寂 Seijaku)

I often wonder if bamboo isn’t the most versatile of plants, given all the many uses to which we put it.

 

 

So far to go –

bamboo shoot

breaking the earth.

 

 

 

This poem was originally written and posted on Bluesky in response to a #dailyhaikuprompt: 'shoots.'

Spiral Galaxies

Leaf 316 – Reflections

 

Astronomy has always fascinated me, ever since I was a young boy, but sadly I’ve spent most of my life living in places which are far too light-polluted to really get the best out of it as a hobby.

 

 

Vast spiral galaxies –

points of light slowly spinning,

eyes lost in the night sky.

 

 

 

This poem was originally written and posted on Bluesky in response to a #haikuchallenge writing prompt: 'vast.'

Photograph Credit: Hubble/NASA/ESA (Wikipedia)

Silver Flashes

Leaf 315 – Reflections

 

Some things can only be heard with the eyes.

 

Swift silver flashes

moving sharp and fast

– filleting sardines.

 

 

This poem was originally written and posted on Bluesky in response to a #dailyhaikuprompt: 'sardine.'

Photograph by Tim Chamberlain

After Rain

Leaf 314 – Reflections

 

Kasamatsu Shiro - Jinda-ji in May (c.1954)

Some things can only be seen with the ears.

 

After rain –

frog songs fill

the evening air.

 

 

Botallack Mine

Leaf 313 – Looking Back

 

On the rugged north coast of Cornwall there is a very picturesque view of two former engine houses, now ruins, perched on a cliff over the sea, which can be found at the old abandoned mine of Botallack. Here in the nineteenth century, copper, tin and arsenic was mined from seams which ran both inland and out under the sea. I remember visiting this place when I was a child. I also remember countless lessons at school when I was growing up about the wonders of the indomitable age of Victorian progress and the “Industrial Revolution” which forged the very greatness of Britain. Yet these ruins seemed to suggest to me that given time, nature can reclaim and eventually efface such a site of hellishly coal-blackened destruction, while we quaintly cover it over with a veil of whimsy and nostalgia.

 

 

BOTALLACK MINE

 

Sea salt working

a white seam into

blackened red brick.

 

 

 

Photograph Credits: Gareth James (top) & Rod Allday (bottom), Geograph.