john e's Unnecessary Haiku Enterprises (Naviar)

My eyes lift to see A sky that is entirely magnolia blooms This is a haiku taken from Kusamakura (or The Three-Cornered World), a novel by Natsume Soseki. A book that transcends the plot development of "standard" Western literature, this is a book about the nature of art and beauty, filled with lyrical beauty and internal monologues on what it means to be an artist.

basking in the New Year's sun... my trashy hut Among the four great masters of Japanese haiku, Kobayashi Issa was the most prolific: during his lifetime he wrote over 20,000 haiku, hundreds of tanka, and several haibun.

morning service offering its fragrance a white lily Sôen Nakagawa was a key figure in the transmission of Zen Buddhism from Japan to the Western world. His teachings emphasized the importance of direct experience and the integration of Zen philosophy into everyday life.

dark clouds menacing – I doubt we shall reach shelter before the deluge ~~Raymond Cobley is an experimental composer and regular participant in our Haiku challenge. Now retired, Raymond aims to explore the possibilities afforded by open-source software, which he uses exclusively for creating and editing both sounds & images.

Haiku by Marco Sebastiano Alessi

in dark autumn nights dew and the new bamboo shoots reaching out to moon Shubham Dasgupta, hailing from the picturesque city of Guwahati, India, introduces himself as a student of law. However, his true passion lies in his enchanting affair with words and the mesmerizing world of poetry.

in pre-dawn darkness the avant-garde soundtrack of orchestral rainfall Elliot Carson is a teacher living in Japan who doubles as an artist/designer/translator in his free time. He writes haiku under the pen name EKC and is currently working to self-publish his first book of haiku.

Icarus the pelican hovers mid flight haiku by Kimberly A. Horning

Frozen dew gleams Spiderwebs made stark The cusp of winter David Pattison

The thief left it behind: the moon at my window. Ryōkan Taigu was a Japanese poet and calligrapher who lived during the Edo period. A Buddhist monk who lived much of his life as a hermit, he spent most of his time writing poetry, calligraphy, and communing with nature. His poetry is often very simple and inspired by nature. ~~~~ moon left behind in window ~~~~

falling leaves deep in the forest I see a buddha A wandering poet and ascetic Zen priest, Santōka was a disciple of Ogiwara Seisensui, one of the first poets to discard the traditional use of the 5-7-5 structure in haiku. Santōka’s poetry emphasizes the necessity of sabi (solitude) in order to achieve spiritual enlightenment and serenity.

Microbiota constitute consciousness we’re never alone haiku by Jason Richardson

the sixth month – with clouds laid on its summit Mount-Arashi Matsuo Basho (1644 – 1694) In his late twenties, Basho moved to Edo (now Tokyo), where he joined the local active poetry community: he started writing under the name Basho after he received a basho tree from one of his students. Basho wrote in a particular form called Haibun, a fusion of haiku and prose: his most famous haibun collection is The Narrow Road to the Interior.

end of rains sunny deep blue sky- winter is yet away Aju Mukhopadhyay is a bilingual poet, author and critic who regularly contributes to International Journals and Websites on varied subjects. Besides many poetry and other awards, he has received Albert Camus Centenary Writing Award, Laureate Award in Best Author category (Non-Fiction) and Glory of India Award (Indian Achievers’ Forum).

Star-like, distant lights Twinkle erratically – Cold December night John Hinks, aka FlownBlue, is a prolific and talented composer, and a regular participant in the Haiku challenge. Aside from his solo project, John is also involved in three improvising duos: ‘Windfall Light‘ (with Jim Tetlow), ‘Abstract Blue‘ (with Kevin Buckland) and ‘Light Fragments‘ (with Steve Escott).

even the fields have a morning attitude blue mist ~ Among the four great masters of Japanese haiku, Issa was the most prolific: during his lifetime he wrote over 20,000 haiku, hundreds of tanka, and several haibun. ~

Darkness, Wet with The sound of the waves A wandering poet and ascetic Zen priest, Santōka was a disciple of Ogiwara Seisensui, one of the first poets to discard the traditional use of the 5-7-5 structure in haiku. Santōka’s poetry emphasizes the necessity of sabi (solitude) in order to achieve spiritual enlightenment and serenity.

first winter rain – a nameless mountain quaintly Ryōkan Taigu was a Japanese poet and calligrapher who lived during the Edo period. A Buddhist monk who lived much of his life as a hermit, he spent most of his time writing poetry, calligraphy, and communing with nature. His poetry is often very simple and inspired by nature.

March 12, 2021. ~~ The long, long river A single line On the snowy plain Nozawa Bonchō was a haikai poet and disciple of Basho who worked as a doctor in Kyoto. Later in life Bonchō distanced himself from Basho’s school and was imprisoned for a crime. He died in 1714. ~~

Borrowing my house from insects, I slept Kobayashi Issa ~ march eight, twenty twenty one ~~

Dec. 3, 2020. ~~ abandoned farmhouse off the snow-piled roof gusts of ghosts Michael Dudley (michaeljdudley.com) was born in downtown Toronto and reared in the Greater Toronto Area. He later lived and worked for 35 years in rural Southwestern Ontario. From May 2018 until June 2020 he continuously travelled. He is the father of three adults and the author of numerous poetry collections, including pilgrimage: haiku selected & new, Red Moon Press, 2017. ~~

sept. 17, 2020. ~~~ Flutteringly, Floating in the breeze, A single butterfly. Regarded as the father of contemporary haiku, Masaoka Shiki was a poet and literary critic during the Meiji period Japan. He advocated realistic observation by “sketching” (shasei) poems and going out into nature with notebooks, thus abandoning the traditional subjects of haiku of the time. His advice for an aspiring poet was, “Use both imaginary pictures and real ones, but prefer the real ones.” ~~~

sept. 10, 2020. ~ Inspiration flows in the least resistant path nature makes a choice You may know Raymond Stull for his regular music contributions to our weekly challenge as Stull, but this week he’s also the author of the haiku of the week. “What (Ray) loves most about Naviar Haiku is the freedom to pursue an idea freely to whatever end. Sometimes the poem feels like a soundtrack and other times it evokes jazz, dubstep, rock, or an ambient piece. Sometimes it evens starts as one and ends as another.”

July 19, 2020. the main material for my piece was performed by Charlie Huang. his original performance and accompanying info can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Guqin-Yangguan_Sandie.ogg since the Naviar Haiku music project works at the intersection of tradition and innovation, i hope my contribution is seen as an extension, rather than a blasphemy, lol. (the "wind instrument" is an addition to the multi-tracked and processed guygin.) ~~~ Kaoru kaze ya morokoshi kakete nana no o ni A fragrant breeze Is blowing from China Over these seven strings [trans. Fumiko Yamamoto] Tagami Kikusha (1753-1826) was a Japanese multi-disciplinary artist and Buddhist nun, mostly known as a poet, painter, calligrapher and tea practitioner. This haiku was written when she visited the temple Hooryuuji in Nara, in 1812, and was allowed to play an ancient Chinese guqin. ~~~

July 14, 2020. ~ All across the sky A star has burned itself out Above the cold sea The author of this poem is Jirozaemon Yasuo, mostly known by his pen name Inan. Inan was headman of the village where Ryokan was born (before being replaced by Ryokan’s father) and a distant disciple of Basho. ~~~~

July 7, 2020. ~ See the heavy leaf on the silent windless day falls of its own will. Nozawa Bonchō was a haikai poet and disciple of Basho who worked as a doctor in Kyoto. Later in life Bonchō distanced himself from Basho’s school and was imprisoned for a crime. He died in 1714. ~~~

June 29, 2020. ~~ Harvest moon, And mist creeping Over the water. (Tr. Robert Haas) Another follower of Matsuo Bashô, Hattori Ransetsu was a samurai who became a monk after his master’s death. Just like the great Bashô, Ransetsu also was a frequent traveller and recorded this in his journals with haiku. ~~~

June 15, 2020. ~ Thought I, the fallen flowers Are returning to their branch; But lo! they were butterflies. 落花枝にかへると見れば胡蝶哉 守武 落花枝にかへると見れば胡ちょかな 守武 rakka eda ni / kaeru to mireba / kochō kana (6-7-5) (translated by William George Aston) A prolific writer of haikai, renga, and Waka, Arakida Moritake was born in 1473 and studied renga under Iio Sōgi. Late in his life, Arakida became head priest of the Inner Ise Shrine. ~~

March 13, 2020. ~ The rain begins to fall, sounding like my heartbeat of the night Sumitaku Kenshin was a haiku poet who practiced free-form haiku. He started writing poety after being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, and dedicated the last 2 years of his life to haiku, leaving 281 poems, mostly published by the free-form haiku magazine Kaishi. ##

March 8, 2020. ~ the sun set behind a traveling monk tall in the withered field Initially a prose writer, Masaoka Shiki is considered by many the first poet of modern haiku. He advocated realistic observation by “sketching” (shasei) poems and going out into nature with notebooks, thus abandoning the traditional subjects of haiku of the time. Shiki died of tuberculosis in 1902, at the age of 34. ~~

February 9, 2020. ~~ in the beach breeze my travels forgotten… evening cool ~~ haiku by Kobayashi Issa http://haikuguy.com/issa ##

February 4, 2020. ~ not heard my breath in years. breathe ~~Jamie Lickfold aka sevenism ##

January 27, 2020. ~ a dark corridor rolls into infinity – floating particles. ~~ A journalist with more than a decade of experience writing for major broadcasters and national publications in the UK, Mark Morris runs the Twitter account Pure Land Haiku and produces music under the pseudonym Pure Land Haiku Music and Journoiz. ~~

January 10, 2020. ~ Buoyantly we go Like the wind, Tasting water. Taneda Santoka was a Japanese poet and mendicant Zen priest who specialised in free verse haiku. Santoka was a disciple of Ogiwara Seisensui (1884-1976), the founder of the free-style haiku which discarded the traditional use of the 5-7-5 structure. ~~

January 2, 2020. ~ a new year begins– before sunrise a pine-decorated boat Kobayashi Issa ~ (Pine cones were considered symbols of fertility by Romans, Greeks, Assyrians, and Christians. Their design forms a perfect Fibonacci sequence. Pine cones have also been associated with the Third Eye, enlightenment, and the pineal gland.) ~~

12/12/19. ~ One push of the door, a single step And the corridor seems to stretch As far as the eye can see. Takuboku Ishikawa is best remembered for his emphatic and introspective tanka: his poems were accepted by the one of the most important tanka journals of the early 20th century, “Myojo”, when he was only 16. Takuboku Ishikawa’s two major collections of tanka, “Ichiaku no Suna” (“A Handful of Sand”) and “Kanashiki Gangu” (“Sad Toys”), came out in 1910 and 1912. “Sad Toys” was published posthumously in June 1912, two months after he died of tuberculosis at the age of 26. ~

Dec. 2, 2019. ~ White chrysanthemums: in the fragrance, too, there are light and shade Akutagawa Ryunosuke is one of the most well-known Japanese authors of short stories: his works include Rashomon (1915), A Fool’s Life (1927) and Spinning Gears (1927). A brilliant student and avid reader, Akutagawa was also a prolific poet. ~

June 20, 2019. ~ I’m on the shore of a river on some rocky path, on a hillside my way home ~~ "Jamie Lickfold aka Sevenism generated some haiku using Talk to Transformer, a neural network capable of completing texts. The results were fascinating so I chose one of those poems for this week’s challenge. Sevenism is one of the earliest participants in the Haiku challenge, as well as the first artist to publish a solo album with Naviar."

Nov. 10, 2018. The piano man is stingy at 3AM. his songs drop like plum ~~ Etheridge Knight ~~

Nov. 3, 2018. The wire fence is tall The lights in the prison barracks Flick off, one by one. Etheridge Knight was an American author, and one of the most prominent poets of the Black Arts Movement in the 20th century. While serving the U.S. Army in Korea he was wounded and as a result, the drug addiction that had begun during his service got worse. He wrote his most acclaimed book, Poems from Prison, during the eight years he spent in the Indiana State Prison for robbery. ~

October 3, 2018. ~ Washing the ink-stone, The Indian ink flows away Blue, blue. This week’s haiku is a poem by Hashimoto Takako, one of the most important voices in haiku poetry during the World War II years in Japan, together with Mitsuhashi Takajo and Ishibashi Hideno among others. ~

Sept. 26 - 27, 2018. a carpet of snow keeping me from going close to the ocean's edge Now regarded as one of the most influential Japanese haiku writers of the twentieth century, Yamaguchi Seishi was an influential representative of the Hototogisu School (founded by Kyoshi, his teacher). A collection of 300 of his works entitled The Essence of Modem Haiku was published by Mangajin Inc in 1933. *

Sept. 20, 2018. * a ladder put against an apple tree goes through toward the sky Hashimoto Takako (1899-1963) was a poet of the Shōwa period and editor of the haiku magazine Shichiyō. Even though Takako studied under Seishi Yamaguchi for some time, she was the first woman among the major modern haiku poets to receive her training in haiku mainly from another woman, Hisajo. *