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Ocean Day Kukai Paul Conneally Loughborough, UK

The WHChaikuforum Internet Ocean Day Kukai  (20th July 2001) was held in conjunction with Derby Museum and Art Gallery and Q- ARTS, as part of the Japan 2001 celebrations in the UK. There are no material prizes but children in Derby made giant paper fishes,  selecting their own haiku from the kukai to write on them and display! Now that is a real honour!

 

CONGRATULATIONS TO HORTENSIA ANDERSON! 

(1st Place selected by Susumu Takiguchi)

 

skinny-dipping -- the pull of the moon the push of the waves hortensia anderson New York USA

 

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Wakako Katsube's Ocean Day Kukai Choices (with names)

Wakako's  love for museums and community learning centres started at age four and persisted through the years. For the first two years after graduating from Sophia University with BA degree in International Relations, Wakako worked for one of the national news papers in Japan as a marketing and advertising officer, and the next three years for Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO as a literacy development officer. Wakako is currently undertaking a master course at the Department of Museum Studies, University of Leicester, with special focus on museum education for promoting multi-cultural understanding.

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Here are my favourite haiku for Ocean Day Kukai!  All of them capture feeling and the particular moment which make me visualise the scenery. I am not giving any order, as I like them all. This selection process is a meaning-making process for an individual, that is to say, causing reflection on one's experience and thoughts through reading and feeling the poems.  I truly enjoyed judging (= meaning making)'!

Wakako Katsube

 

shells in a cavern washed by the ceaseless ocean hollow songs of sea M.A.Griffiths Dorset, UK

I personally  like shells very much.  When reading this haiku, I somehow remembered a book, 'Gift from the Sea' written by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. [WK]

 

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autumn ocean - leaping the sinking sun cloud-dolphins joyce maxner Pennsylvania, USA

 

Yes, I could see the orange/pinkish/purplish sky with cloud-dolphins jumping
and moving forward with free state of mind. Yes, very free without any fear or
anxieties.... [WK]

 

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morning sea mist - the noises from a pod of elephant seals an'ya Oregon, USA

I can feel the fresh morning air - very clear and crispy fresh air with the smell of the sea. I remembered the coastal line in Santa Cruz in California.  I wonder if this writer is from the west coast of the USA! I used to live there for a few years during my secondary school days. [WK]

 

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summer storms - in the calmness of your eye she heads for harbour kevin ryan Loughborough, UK

I feel the calm love and caring relationship between the two persons.  I think that "you" is a boy friend, looking at his girl friend leaving.  They may have to be apart for a short while, may several years, but I know and believe that they will be together in the future! [WK]

 

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our lips touch the surf moves sand beneath my feet Darrell Byrd California, USA

Very romantic!  I can imagine a black/white photograph of this scenery. Yes, Magnum photo-like snap shot, isn't it? [WK]

 

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Susumu Takiguchi's Ocean Day Kukai Selections

I am delighted and honoured to present my five selections (not in the order of merit): -

 

sea breeze white sails bulging Rita Summers Tasmania, AU

[Tanpyo=brief comments]: a Buson-like haiku of pleasant and peaceful experience at the sea in summer. "Bulging" is good (rather than swelling), saving this poem from falling into mediocrity. The image is clear and fresh. Does it translate well into Japanese (it needn't to do)? "shiokaze ni fukururu shiroki hokazu kana" Yes, it does! [ST]

 

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skinny-dipping -- the pull of the moon the push of the waves hortensia anderson New York, USA

 

[Tanpyo]: I have swum nude in the sea several times in my life when people were miles away, and I still cannot forget the sensation it gave me. The second and the third lines make this haiku one of the most innovative I have ever seen. Very tactile, a real experience of submitting oneself to the elements, swaying and blending literally with nature, at the mercy of remote cosmic forces and of immediate natural forces. [ST}

 

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sound of summer tide and this decaying house of an admiral Eiko Yachomoto Yokosuka City, Japan

 

[Tanpyo]: Another "large-scale" haiku for which Kyoshi had penchant, but here more in terms of time than space. Once a big and magnificent house of a man of brilliant career and power, now in decay. Where is the admiral? Dead? Long dead? No matter. The impermanence of man-made things and man himself is contrasted with the permanence of nature, represented by the ocean's music which is timeless. Our existence, a mere blip in the scale of eternity. [ST}

 

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first sunrise ~ the Pacific Ocean curves back to me John Bird NSW, Australia

[Tanpyo]: This is an example of those haiku which hit one as good without one quite knowing why. Presumably the New Year's Day (if by a Japanese hand, definitely). The use of "the Pacific Ocean" is undoubtedly a winner. However, we don't really know exactly what the situation is in this haiku. Curves can be vertical (huge waves receding and coming back) or horizontal (the coast line curves and curves, and finally the sea comes back to where one stands). It is a bit like the poetic explanation of the most difficult and unanswered question of mankind, the beginning and end of the universe, by Stephen Hawking in his "A Brief History of Time" (1988). We marvel at it but we don't understand. [ST]

 

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sunset... grandmother casts her sins into the sea joyce maxner Pennsylvania, USA

[Tanpyo]: There are many usual praises here: successful alliteration ("s"), juxtaposition, vivid image, colours, sounds, good structure etc. However, the most interesting feature is the human interaction with nature and the reminding to us human beings of the fact that we are after all part of nature. For the grandmother it may well be a religious conduct but the haiku seems to say far more than that. All that is human is represented by "her sins" (not just literally sinful beings). The grandmother represent the mortal nature of our life, which is not necessarily taken for granted. After casting all that is human, man (represented by the grandmother) seems to be returning back to nature rather than cleansing man's sins, i.e. dumping them into the sea and returning back to little human existence. [ST]

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Kazue Daikoku's Ocean Day Kukai selections. 

Kazue Daikoku, of Kawasaki, Japan, is producer, editor and translator for Happa-no-Kofu, the  excellent Japanese web-press which distributes translated and original works in both Japanese and English (happa-no-kofu, means leaf miner in Japanese). It is an aim of Happa-no-kofu that their activity on the internet help foster international communication on an individual level. Happa-no-Kofu is a sister press to ASGP.

Congratulations to an'ya who's Seal Pod haiku gets selected again - otherwise all new selections!

Just goes to show what an excellent and varied set of kukai haiku we had!

~ paul conneally
Loughborogh, UK

 

pine-filled wind - on the wet skin the shriek of seagulls Visjna Mcmaster Zagreb, Croatia

*It is very lively that seagulls break the silence. [KD]

 

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swimming naked... in blackness the stars are sprinkled with plankton Debra Woolard Bender Florida, USA

*I've never swum at night, but I can imagine the sea is very beautiful and
mysterious. [KD]

 

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morning sea mist - the noises from a pod of elephant seals an'ya Oregon, USA

*I remembered of the film which was about a legend of seals in the north of England. [KD]

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night of shooting stars~ ...how the ocean gives back ........its own light Marjorie Buettner Minnesota, USA

*I imagine very quiet seascape at night. [KD]

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lying in the sand rock for a pillow a woman reads Semi (Terrie Relf) California, USA

*It seems to be a perfect day in summer. [KD]

 

Read Essay: "Repetition in Haiku" by Florence Vilén

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