Sheltering from the Sun

Leaf 323 – Reflections

 

Matt Francis - The Woman with the Golden Umbrella

Living in Japan, where it is often sunny whatever the season, it’s interesting to see that parasols are still widely used here. I remember visiting at park in the UK during the height of summer with a Japanese friend, where we encountered a small English boy who was utterly perplexed as to why anyone would decide to use an umbrella on a day when it very clearly wasn’t raining! – But as our summers across the globe seem to be getting worryingly warmer each year, we in the West would be wise to re-adopt the parasol.

 

(Although, having said that, I’m slightly perturbed to notice how in recent years the use of handheld battery-operated fans and even jackets fitted with in-built electric powered ventilation systems are becoming increasingly common here in Japan. It seems illogical to me that adapting to climate change by adopting technologies which require the increased consumption of power is a sensible response. In the long run it will surely only make things worse. Short-term thinking, always in favour of personal gain first and foremost is perhaps our biggest collective enemy.)

 

 

Sheltering from the sun

– a girl under a

golden umbrella.

 

 

Photograph Credit: Matt Francis (PhotographizeMag/Instagram)

False Futures

Leaf 322 – Reflections

 

Nakagin Capsule Tower

Most visions of the future have always been very firmly grounded in the present. I find it endlessly fascinating to read classic science fiction authors, such as Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov, for exactly this reason. There is something wistfully forlorn in thinking about these utopian futures which never came to be …

 

 

Saving a false future

– all those CDs,

burnt for nothing.

 

 

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

Photograph Credit: Unknown

Persimmons

Leaf 321 – Reflections

 

Katsuyuki Nishijima - Evening Sun (20th Century)

Having grown up in the UK, I can’t help finding it strange to see such large fruits growing on trees here in Japan during the winter.

 

 

Autumn into winter –

persimmons ripening

on black branches.

 

 

 

Sakai Hoitsu - Three Mejiro Birds on Persimmon Tree (19th Century)

Iridescence

Leaf 320 – Art Inspired

 

Hasegawa Senzan - Iris and Dragon Fly

This poem was in part inspired by Hasegawa Senzan’s painting, ‘Iris and Dragon Fly’ (19th Century), but also by visits to the well-known Iris beds at Koishikawa Korakuen and Meiji-jingu, both in Tokyo.

 

 

Iridescence

alighting

on a blue iris.

 

 

 

Kawase Hasui - Irises at Meiji-jingu (1951)

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.

 

 

 

The second of these two haiku was originally written and posted on Bluesky in response to a #haikufeels writing prompt: 'travel.'

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.'