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Simply Haiku: A Quarterly Journal of Japanese Short Form Poetry
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Winter 2005, vol 3 no 4
HAIKU
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Featured Poet: Ikuyo Yoshimura
Ikuyo Yoshimura of Japan is one of my favorite haiku poets.
Her style is unique, with her own voice stamp. Millions of
people in the world today compose haiku but few produce the quality of haiku
consistent with Yoshimura's. Hers are ephemeral, begging to be read
again and again. And believe me, few three lined poems can do that to
a reader. Her poetry breathes life, becomes part of the nature she
observes. Too much of what is passed for haiku these days is formula based and
lacking soul. With this in mind, Ikuyo Yoshimura's poetry is a summer melon,
something to savor during the dry months the English haiku movement is
currently going through.
The poet is someone who does her homework. She studies
and practices her craft, and uses what she learns to enrich the lives
of others. She is a haiku ambassador, a college professor, a poet,
and so much more. Below are samples of her work, published and
unpublished. Enjoy, and be inspired.
HAIKU
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no one notices
a single cherry ripened
in the depth of the garden |
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even the shadows
show up their cheer—
cherry petal |
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shadow
of the hydrangea
thin cries of a cat |
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rainy season is over
my hair brightens
in cutting with scissors |
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making pickled ume
I calm
one of my complaints |
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autumn breeze—
wearing mother's kimono
I become gentle |
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Previously Published:
September sky —
relieved
from my maze |
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a long rain moistens
the lost national border
of the world map |
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spring mist
a young priest going to —
no return
Cats in Love, Rainbow Press, 2000
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spring thunder —
a potter's fingers stop
at the wheel |
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spring nearby
the brush of lipstick
working smoothly |
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weeding the garden
I pull out
spring, too |
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a young wife
washing muddy bamboo shoots,
her white fingers
Spring Thunder, Rainbow Press, 1996 |
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who keeps
my pearls cultivated in Ago Bay
after my death |
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in the rape flower fields
the Virgin Mother
is holding a kitten
A Desert Rose, Rainbow Press, 2002 |
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Ikuyo Yoshimura was born in Kyoto, Japan, in 1944. She graduated from Doshisha University and then received her MA from Aichigakuin University. She is an
associate professor of English at Asahi University in Gifu. She began
writing poetry in college. Her poem "Small Pictures" was first
published in 1966. At that time she was interested in the Beat poets of
the '60s whose poetry was influenced by Japanese haiku. Haiku is a kind
of environmental nature literature that can reflect the real moment of
sympathizing between man and nature. To write haiku we must have a keen
awareness toward our way of living. R.H. Blyth has told us, "Haiku shows
us what we knew all the time, but did not know we knew; it shows us
that we are poets in so far as we live at all." She conducted The
Writing English Haiku Circle "EVERGREEN" in 1987, which is the first
English haiku writing group in Japan. She is the recipient of several
haiku awards, including the Aichi Prefecture Prize for Haiku in
English, the Special Merit Book Award given by The Australia Day
Council, and the Haiku Four Seasons Award given by Newsweek. She lives
in Gifu with her family.
Recent publications include At the Riverside (1990), Renaissance of
the Works of R.H. Blyth (Matsugaoka Library 1995), Linked Poems by
College Students (ed., Ogaki Women's College 1995), The Life of R.H.
Blyth (Dohosha 1996), Spring Thunder (Rainbow Press 1996), Cats in
Love (Rainbow Press 2000), The Internationalization of Japanese Poems
(Chugainippohsha), and A Halo Around The Moon (Rainbow Press 2004). She
has published numerous articles on haiku in English. Her poems often
appear in Simply Haiku, HI (Japan), Simyaku, (Japan), Frogpond
(USA), Haiku Headlines (USA), Haiku Quarterly (UK), Blithe
Spirit (UK) and Albatross (Romania).
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Copyright 2005: Simply Haiku
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