Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Petalstorms へイルストーン花見:1と2



A total of seventeen people participated in these two cherry-blossom-viewing events, both held in Kyoto – on April 1 and 14, respectively. The first was an evening of almost imperceptible spring drizzle moistening the newly-opened flowers, followed by a warm, hushed after-rain, through which there was a brief sighting of the full moon; the second, a glorious afternoon with occasional breezes spilling the white blossoms, now in full bloom.
We had with us two special poet guests: Sean O’Connor from Dublin at the first and Eugene Gloria from San Francisco at the second. At both, we shared sake, tea, snacks and poetry. The仏母心院pavilion beside Osawa Pond was our base for the first, although later we also visited the weeping shidare cherry-trees lit up in Mr. Toueimon Sano’s Garden nearby. We hired a platform in the spectacular Omuro Cherry Garden at Ninnaji for our second hanami, and wandered around from there. A few haiku from each:

under cherry blossoms
they say that ogres live –
no, not ogres;
oddballs, I think!   (Hisashi Miyazaki)

Tonight’s moon unseen
A house lamp glowing deeper
In the pond’s last light.   (Sean O’Connor)

a raindrop
slipping from a cherry flower;
fresh evening breeze.   (Mayumi Kawaharada)

By soft cloud and nightfall
The cherry blossom has been celebrated
Enough.   (Tito)

buzzing bees busy
savoring the blossoms –
people only look   (Jane Wieman)

clustered round the mobile phone:
oh, what a beautiful blossom!   (Richard Donovan)

petalstorms
bring shouts of joy ...
under the spring sun  
(Mari Kawaguchi)

Sunday, April 15, 2007

The Premier's Hand

Dear Family,
A curious day. It began with Kaz and I getting up early to cycle before breakfast to the hill of cherry blossoms closest to us (rain, forecast for tonight, meant it would probably be our last chance). There, we learned from a temporary road sign and a friendly constable that Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, was due to visit Kyoto for a few brief hours later in the day.
As luck would have it, I was returning home in the afternoon through the dry ricefields in another part of Sagano, when I noticed a large number of men in black suits standing around in the paddies. Curiosity aroused, and using my intimate knowledge of the network of narrow agricultural tracks, I managed to avoid all the policemen and probable plainclothes heavies and get myself into position right beside a lonely farm near the back of Hirosawa Pond, where I soon learned the Premier was to arrive in just a few minutes.
The motorcade; the disembarkation; the swarming; the farmer's greeting; the stroll past the world's media, all herded into a neatly improvised triple-decker stand. I was with a group of local farmers and their wives, only about eleven or twelve of us in all - and one of the women shouted, Ni hau! Wen stopped in his tracks and waved at us. For fifteen minutes, then, he disappeared into the bowels of the farm, where, we later learned from the TV news, he sat on a tractor and delicately planted a tomato seedling in the soil. The fences and bushes fairly bristled with those dark-suited men with wires running into their ears (many no doubt with hidden guns and kung-fu black belts to boot). A helicopter hovered high over the pond.
His arm around the old farmer, eventually he reemerged, and the entourage streamed down towards the waiting motorcade. Wen again looked over to the motley assortment of token locals just out of reach - and trouble - across a couple of small fields and ...

/ ... he turns sharp right towards us instead of getting back into his car. It is as if he is making a bid for freedom. He is suddenly upon us. The first farmer, caught unawares, has his back turned; but when the Premier thrusts out his hand, the farmer whoops aloud and, looking straight at Wen, screams the not-entirely appropriate salutation, "Banzai!" And now he comes to me and offers me his hand. It is small, warm, rather soft, but full of - how shall I put it - well, ... a sort of grace. He smiles, says something in Chinese I take to mean 'Nice to meet you!' and strides on to a grassy paddy-edge just behind me, where some rustiques veritables are gaffing, their faces so obviously not suntanned just by the few good days of spring so far ... /

And then he was gone, and all eighteen cars with him; and the heli receded. There was just an excited murmuring of people moving back through the fields as the policemen relaxed their stiff walkie-talkie poses.
This evening, we took Padparadshah to the vet; he hasn't eaten for more than a week. He has cat AIDS. The vet has given him less than a month to live. And now it rains and rains.
We send you lots of love,

Tito

To spring earth
And speedwell,
A tiny orange butterfly and ...
The Head of the Chinese State.

(Sagano, Kyoto, 13.4.07)

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

NOTICE BOARD お知らせ

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HAILSTONES (2001) a haiku chapbook ¥700 (sold out)
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******HAILSTONE EVENTS******
(RECENT PAST: for event reports, see archive postings)
Aug 03, 2006 Summer Evening on the Water, Kukai, Arashiyama, Kyoto (JW/KY)
Aug 26, 2006 Renga Meeting in Shokado Garden, Yawata, Osaka (GS)
Oct 14, 2006 Hailstone's annual Autumn Haike, Yamabe-no-michi, Nara (SG)
Oct 15, 2006 Internat. Ginko-no-Renga (in assoc. with Roses Group, UK), Asuka, Nara (SG)
Nov 05, 2006 Mt. Ogura is Shedding Tears Part VIII, Saga, Kyoto (Lecture-Ginko, SG/ACE)
Dec 09, 2006 Ginko under Autumn Leaves, Tetsugaku-no-michi, Kyoto (MB/KY)
Jan 27, 2007 First Kukai of 2007 (Hatsu-kukai), Hamayashiki, Osaka (MK/RH)
Feb 18, 2007 Chinese New Year (poetry reading), Jane’s house, Kyoto (JW)
Apr 02, 2007 Hanami (Cherry-blossom viewing 1), Osawa Pond, Kyoto (SG)
Apr 14, 2007 Hanami (Ch-bl. viewing 2), Ninnaji Temple, Kyoto (SG)
(FORTHCOMING: for further details, please see separate postings; enquiries through the COMMENTS key, please.)
May 20 (Sun.) Mt. Ogura is Shedding Tears, Part IX. 4 km, hike through spring woods to W of Kyoto. Some rubbish clearing, too! Rendezvous: 10:15 at Keifuku Arashiyama Station. Ends by 16:15. May 27 if rain. (Organizer: SG/ACE)
June 16 (Sat.) Haiga (haiku painting) workshop. 13:30 – 16:30 at Kyoto Fukushi Kaikan 3F Room 8, Lecturer: Tsuchi-no-ko. KFK is just outside NE corner of Nijo Castle grounds. Fee: 500 yen, incl. tea/cakes. Bring own paper/brush/ink, etc. if poss. (Organizer: SG)

English Haiku Workshops 2007 - Hibikiai Forum at Friend Peace House near the Gosho in C.Kyoto (2nd Mons. 18:00 April – July) and Senri Yomiuri Culture Center’s Eigo de Haiku in N.Osaka (4th Thurs. 18:00 every month). Enquiries, through the COMMENTS key below! If you don't leave your email, we will reply through the COMMENTS key, too.