Arco (TN)

Arco (TN)

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Carpe Diem Special - Shiba Sonome's "an oak in a deep wood" - October 18, 2014



"Our featured haiku-poetess Shabi Sonome (1664-1726), a contemporary of Basho. Shiba Sonome was a disciple of Basho's whom he admired. After the death of her husband, she earned her living as an eye doctor and as a judge of haikai. It should be noted that it is due to Basho and his ability to work with women that the amount of woman's haikai writings have been preserved which we have. One sees that most of these women gained access to the inner circle around Basho by being related either by marriage or blood to one of his disciples. It is possible that Shiba Sonome was one of the few to be accepted as a poet on her own.(Source: AHA-Poetry)"
 For this CD-Special, the next haiku by Sonome is the inspiration for you to write an all new haiku in the same sense, tone and spirit as the one by Sonome.

yo ni hito no shiranu hana ari miyama shii
some blossoms there are
that nobody sees—
an oak deep in the woods


© Shiba Sonome


I found this interpretation of our host most convincing:

 "As I read and re-read this haiku again it felt like Sonome had written it for her master Basho, because, as you all know ... Basho means 'banana-tree' and that tree has blossoms that aren't rich in color, the blossoms of the banana-tree are inconspicuously and it's wood is useless. But he (Basho) is like an oak, he is the master of haiku and he can point you the magical world of nature and expose it to you all (The deeper meaning of oak is mysterious and deeper knowledge/wisdom). So ... maybe Sonome has written the above haiku for her master.




giving profusely
rooted in rich shaded soil
- sweet honeysuckle


© G.s.k. '14



File:Honeysuckle-1.jpg
Original Photo Credits: Aftabbanoori 


4 comments:

  1. This is such a sweet tribute, Georgia :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well .. you see, we were to write a haiku in the same Tone, Spirit and sense ... all throughout the prompt, the haiku poets presented poems about their sensei ... Basho in that case ... so I figured that as Chèvrefeuille is our sensei in this haiku family that I'd try to write a tribute to him.

      Delete

harmonious words ... like crystal clear water ... pure ectasy

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