among the wasps silence
twelve dozen haiku by a portuguese bum
by
Eduardo Ribeiro
SMASHWORDS EDITION
~ ~ ~ § ~ ~ ~
PUBLISHED BY:
Eduardo Ribeiro on Smashwords
Among the wasps silence: twelve dozen haiku by a portuguese bum
Copyright © 2010 by Eduardo Ribeiro
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is poetry. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Smashwords Edition License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.
~ ~ ~ § ~ ~ ~
among the wasps silence
twelve dozen haiku by a portuguese bum
~ ~ ~ § ~ ~ ~
Foreword
The Portuguese were the first westerners to contact extensively with Japanese culture and society (at Tanegashima in 1543), and a mutual attraction still exists.
My love of Japanese art is some forty years old. Soon in my life I was attracted by the very complex apparent simplicity in ikebana, origami, sumi-e and, of course, haiku.
The relationships between haiku and Zen Buddhism were also important in my adolescent search for spirituality - still are, as I try to keep being an adolescent amateur for as long as I can...
Writing - in English - is a large part of my other, less important, life as a scientist. It was only natural to try my hand at haiku in English, also because I (still) do not know Japanese and because almost every haiku that I have ever read was translated into, or originally written in English.
As for the form: I am not knowledgeable enough to enter the discussion about western haiku syllable counting. Most of these haiku are in 5-7-5 structure, sometimes less (as in the title), but never more. I like my haiku to have a somewhat "classic" tone, with a season identification (not necessarily a kigo word, often just a mood - sometimes for the wrong season) and a caesura, equivalent to the kiregi which, when needed, I indicate by an underscore. For the same reason, the only punctuation marks used are the underscore and seldom the question mark, and all the text is in lower case characters.
In the end it is all about meaning, sound and rhythm.
One almost never writes strictly for oneself, and so I published my haiku with a tool that seems to be the contemporary natural medium for micro poetry: Twitter®. People from all over the world were nice enough to care for my haiku and encouraged me to continue.
I recall with special fondness the kind words of Poet Maureen Evans (@Maureen) at the very beginning of my endeavour and of Poet Samuel Peralta (@semaphore) further along.
This ebook is the result of my first year of Twitter haiku as @edoowado. As I often say to my friends:
- May my haiku bring to you joy or sorrow, anything but noise...
~ ~ ~ § ~ ~ ~
spring
---
dark and lonely night
shows the true meaning of life _
cricket and firefly
---
the long lost swallow
has flown hesitantly home
nest under my hat
---
clean nest fallen egg
this is the truth about pain
fresh lizard fodder
---
light fallen birdling
tweets trembling songs in the night
the cat undressed it
---
eight purple strokes
two milky quartz spheres
flesh sumi-e
---
lonely blackbird
only this dark spring
excuses cats
---
pacific silverfish
in schools swim freely between
pages of tiny palms
---
sparrow on the ledge
only one glimmering eye _
am i fast enough?
---
a single poppy
peeks over the barley fields _
bug in traffic lights
---
two blackbirds one brown
golden ring amber bill _ sound
in nightmarish glee
---
the first time last night
i heard the cuckoo _ his words
hototogisu
---
these two flies don't seem
to care where they are heading
only dance matters
---
blue morning glory
head bent in contemplation
of the coming dawn
---
white morning glory
tumescent beyond the fence
still awaits the bee
---
red morning glory
is fall coming or is it
that you are blushing
---
smoke on the water
the blackbird resumes his song
second-hand smoker
---
the simplicity
of a little sparrow's flight
so complicated
---
when the bum wakes up
on the damp ground a daisy
between his fingers
---
amidst this thick smoke
the hydrangea feels at home
as if it were fog
---
would i write at night
if there were no fireflies
swarming in my eyes
---
three narcissus _ one
standing by the pond and one
its own reflection
---
four narcissus _ both
drift on the water away
from their reflections
---
one narcissus still
by the pond alone he stands
withering slowly
---
by the pond there are
no narcissus now _ only
hazy reflections
---
out of the old pond
two frogs plopped _ left on the silt
just six smudged footprints
---
it's such a dark night _
the firefly and i must have
blinked at the same time
---
the sparrow looks at
me while grooming his feathers _
doesn't seem to care
---
that rosy blossom
is so delicate i will
just sip its juices
---
this hazy morning
the rooster looks puzzled at
my open window
---
arch your back and howl
that exquisite suffering _
a dream of the wild
---
the fence is too weak
to keep mare and stallion more
than two feet apart