squatting
the frog observes
the clouds
~Chiyo (F Bowers, The Classic Tradition of Haiku)

squatting
the frog observes
the clouds
~Chiyo (F Bowers, The Classic Tradition of Haiku)

the autumn wind
resounds in the mountain–
temple bell
~Chiyo (F Bowers, The Classic Tradition of Haiku)

The wild geese yet
Are content to stay —
And must you return
~Otomo Oemaru (1719-1805)
cited: F Bowers, The Classic Tradition of Haiku

Nikon D750 f/6.3 1/200 s 90 mm ISO 100

“I only saw faces
I didn’t see the changing era
I only saw the waves
I should have seen the wind
Wind is what makes the waves
I’m saying you were the big wave at that moment
We were drifting away
One day we’ll go up again
Eventually the big wave will break down”
Kim Dong-hyeok, Screenplay: The Face Reader

Nikon D750 f/6.3 1/50s 35 mm I00 ISO
Let me introduce you to Hu Ge, one of the top actors in China who has an amazing singing voice. His role in a series entitled, Nirvana in Fire, has been noted by fans to parallel the leading character’s rise from a tragedy. In 2006, a serious car accident that took the life of his friend and assistant, resulted in major surgeries which included over a hundred sutures on his face and neck. It would take him nearly a year to recover.

The poetry of Japan has its seeds in the human heart and mind and grows into the myriad leaves of words. Because people experience many different phenomena in this world, they express that which they think and feel in their hearts in terms of all that they see and hear. A nightingale singing among the blossoms, the voice of a pond-dwelling frog–listening to these, what living being would not respond with his own poem? It is poetry which effortlessly moves the heavens and earth, awakens the world of invisible spirits to deep feeling, softens the relationship between men and women, and consoles the hearts of fierce warriors.
~Ki no Tsurayuki, (preface Kosinsbū, ca. 905)

We live
in a tide-swept inlet,
floating, flung.
In such a world, why cling to
collections of poems?
~Izumi Shikibu, (J Hirshfield & M Aratani, The Ink Dark Moon)

How invisibly
it changes color
in this world,
the flower
of the human heart.
~Ono No Komachi (J Hirshfield & M Aratani, The Ink Dark Moon)

We live
in a tide-swept inlet,
floating, flung.
In such a world, why cling to
collections of poems?
~Izumi Shikibu (J Hirshfield & M Aratani, The Ink Dark Moon)

Nikon D750 f/6.3 1/8s 35mm 100 ISO
On a troubled current
we grow old in this world–
today’s rain-filled stream
will only increase
with tears.
~Izumi Shikibu (J Hirsfield & M Aratani, The Ink Dark Moon)

Nikon D750 f/7.1 1/100 s 300 mmm 100 ISO
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