A baseball haiku, 2007

visiting team
sitting
on different wood

— Ken LaCosse, San Francisco

I corresponded with Ken (of Mujitsu Shakuhachi) a few times this fall about the genre of baseball haiku. Ken sent this haiku to me at the end of one of his emails. I didn't realize it was his. The poem haunted me for weeks. It is as the late poet R.G. "Dick" Barnes once described a fine work, a 'compleat poem'. I described it as 'insidious'. Published here with kind permission of the author. Also see my original post from the book Baseball Haiku.

This entry ends my haiku interlude for the time being, but please feel free to comment on this and other postings by clicking on the (tiny) comments link at the bottom of each posting. I almost always post and respond to comments and enjoy the dialogue.

Now, it is back to shakuhachi watching and commentary in the new year.

On the Occasion of the Death of Inindo Sensei, Winter 1938

One note of the shakuhachi
resounds endlessly
piercing the winter clouds

Fuyugumo no totoki kagiri kakure keri

— Soen Nakagawa Roshi (1907-1984)
from the book Endless Vow: the zen path of Soen Nakagawa. Introduction by Eido T. Shimano, compiled and translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi & Roko Sherry Chayat (Shambala, 1996)

This is reprinted as a review of the book, which does not need any further review than an example of the one of the book's many poems.