Hot Pursuit

Leaf 85 – Senryu (or, witty tom-foolery)

 

Valdis Baskirovs - Bear Linocut Print (2018)

This 5-7-5 senryu attempts to marry two witticisms into a comedic confluence. First, the well-known aphorism or idiom: ‘Do bears [do something] in the woods?’, and, second, William Shakespeare’s most famous stage direction (from “The Winter’s Tale”): ‘Exeunt, pursued by a bear.’ The end result is hopefully an amusing, if somewhat coarse and bawdy mental image of life in the great outdoors and its occasional, unforeseen perils.

Having sought relief

in the woods, hiker exits

– pursued by a bear.

 

 

 

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

Nembutsu

Leaf 84 – Reflections

 

The Daibutsu at Kamakura (from "Wonders of the World", c.1920s-1930s)

The Nembutsu, chanting 南無阿弥陀仏 ‘Namu Amida Butsu’, is a way of hailing Amitābha, the Buddha of Infinite Light, as practised in the Pure Land School of Mahāyāna Buddhist meditation. The Nembutsu was popularised in Japan by the Tendai monk, Hōnen (1133-1212), during the Kamakura Period.

 

 

Namu Amida Butsu

– outside, the sound

of someone sweeping.

 

 

 

The Viewpoint

Leaf 83 – Looking Back

 

This poem is linked to Leaf 10, but separated by several decades and set in an entirely different season.

 

 

THE VIEWPOINT, HARROW-ON-THE-HILL

 

Climbing the green sward hill,

beneath wind-rushed leaves

of tall trees, reaching up around

the Church spire – just to look out,

once again, over a place called “home.”

 

 

 

Photograph by Tim Chamberlain

Rainbow

Leaf 82 – Reflections

 

Ohara Koson - Pagoda and Rainbow (c1900-1910)
Rijksmuseum 

There is always something uplifting in seeing a rainbow, wherever we are …

 

 

Wet, clouds and sun

– a rainbow rising.

 

 

 

Rembrandt's Scholar

Leaf 81 – Looking Back

 

Rembrandt - Philosopher Reading (1631)

This was in fact something which happened to me one evening. It was a completely still night and I’ve no idea what prompted the breeze which altered the candle’s flame, nor did I feel it myself. Having since written this unusual happening down as a tanka, it seems to me that it much better befits a description of the types of oil paintings which show bearded old scholars sunk deep in their reading; paintings such as Rembrandt’s “Philosopher” of 1631.

 

 

A curious glance,

cast up at the candle’s

sudden slanted flame 

– tired eyes, slowly

drift back to the page.

 

 

 

Wind-battered Straw Hat

Leaf 80 – Looking Back

 

At first when I saw him – looking down from where I stood on the cliff above – I was worried he might have drowned. But then I saw his hat move as he turned his head. He was lying there fully clothed, but without his shoes, cradled in the rocks – simply letting the sea-swells rise and fall, foaming over and around him. It was a very, very hot and humid day at the height of summer. His recumbent and relaxed form certainly seemed to suggest he’d found a good place to cool off.

 

 

Wind-battered straw hat

– the old man immerses himself

in the restless sea.

 

Busan, South Korea.

 

 

 

Photographs by Tim Chamberlain

Tanabata

Leaf 79 – Reflections

 

Xu Beihong - Double Happiness (c.1930s-1940s)

Tanabata is celebrated on 7th July, the seventh night of the seventh month. It marks the evening when the star, Altair (the oxherd boy) is thought to cross the Milky Way (the River of Heaven) to join his lover, Vega (the weaver girl), the one night of the year when they are permitted to meet. In some versions of the story, the two lovers are said to take the form of a pair of magpies in order to cross the celestial river that flows unceasingly, high in the heavens.

 

 

TANABATA

 

Journeying through the sky

– starlight, 

glinting off black feathers.