As the leaves consider changing colours soon

 In waiting for a new apartment I wrote a few pensive poems noticing the tree leaves growing darker in preparation for the autumn display. I found a new apartment and job so things are going quite well indeed.

black rusting coal train

old grain seed farmer sows out

between tracks grass grows

sweater warm thick socks

green leaves shiver convoy of clouds

evening beef broth tea on

"Hot day yesterday"

sun droops between clouds

lime to em'rald trees

rain on dark green trees

lines on faded jeans

mid-July hints at fall colours

It seems I'm quite fascinated by the idea of a stopped lead heavy steam engine and its contrast with the slow growing gentleness of nature; an idea I will explore further with regards to Steampunk style.

I plan on incorporating food into my haiku more as well.

Moonless Night Haiku

These days I'm in Gwangali and getting ready for the rainy season. I'm also researching the Korean Matcha Tea Ceremony that existed long, long before the Chosun Dynasty. More on that later. Suffice :

Here's a few old Haiku I had written some time ago...
~~
moonless night cool sea breeze
in a jet black raku bowl
minds silent questions rest.
--MWT.
~~
rain drums tearoom roof
frothy green tea wide white bowl
sip frothy rumble.
--MWT.

The last line "minds silent questions rest" I got from another poem. I really liked the resonance of it. So I put it into a Japanese tea ceremony haiku...I wish I could recall the poet. If you've encountered it, the earlier poem that inspired me, do post a comment ! I'd love to give it and its poet proper credit !

Moon viewing poems

     Do excuse my less than erudite post here. Others such as the author/ringleader of the Haiku Bandit Society may very well know more of the moon viewing tradition than I. Indeed he regularly holds a highly successful 'online' moon viewing party where haiku poets submit their haiku upon viewing the most recent full moon. Do indeed check out his blog.

     Online one may find many pictures of Edo era moon viewing parties. Kangetsu is the Japanese word for these such parties. Ukiyo-e prints a plenty celebrating the moon and these such viewing parties may be found at the Japanese Woodblock Print Gallery. Two of the below were found there :

Artist: Kobayashi Kiyochika

Title: A Hundred Views of Musashi: Moon Beyond Shinagawa

Artist: Kitao Shigemasa

Title: Autumn Moon at Ishiyama Temple (Ishiyama shûgetsu), from an untitled series of Eight Views of Ômi (Ômi hakkei)

The O-Tsukimi Chakai (Moon Viewing Tea Ceremony) is a traditional Japanese festival which honors the full moon in autumn at the end of September. My wife and I are busy preparing to do one such tea ceremony this September for friends. This summer we shall purchase the proper candle holders.

     As of this night I have written a few moon viewing poems upon doing a brief tea ceremony and then mellowing out with a Korean decaffeinated magnolia tea from OSulloc. I've posted two of them below. Enjoy.
~~
stressful office hours
long rivers of red tail lights
black sky only moon
--MWT.
 ~~
in the sky above
night time tea ceremony
a white peach mochi
 --MWT.

Tea haiku

Last week I wrote several haiku on tea. Enjoy!

Busan 釡山 (Kettle Mountain)
mist morning calm
got tea?

A surprising number of Busanites are unaware of the meaning of Busan/ Kettle Mountain.

most Asia
iced green tea
Hello Kitty tray

However there are tonnes of exceptions beyond the tea that is taken most casually at home by most people here in Asia. Some other extremely common occurrences of tea in Asia:

birdcage on wall
grey chipped cups
Pu'er in YiXing

janggi board
smack of the piece
dashi kongmool.

(janggi: Korean chess dashi kongmool is a broth made with tiny fish. The fish are removed leaving a fishy taste to it. It was brought to Korea from Japan and is quite commonly drunken from a dish along with a meal).


Summer:

adjummas monks
dewy bowl
omejacha

(adjummas: Korean for a married woman. Omejacha is tea, actually a tisane from the omeja fruit. It is commonly taken in summer: google images of omijacha


Winter:

frosty stepping stones
icy wind
chado indoors

Typhoon hits Tokyo

A typhoon recently passed over most of Japan dissapating over Tokyo.
Korea or The Weather Here
Tokyo typhoon
short walks
between clouds





















June 16th : Captain Picard Day
Role model
Cpt.Picard says
"Tea, Earl Grey"

The Captain ordering tea, Earl Grey, hot in various episodes.


A 300 haiku:

Spartan haiku
sun boy spear
dead donkey

Airports and planes:

Sparrow skips
flurry of feathers
jet engine.

Headset two light sticks
guiding planes
silent break moon

I wrote this one while out hiking from LG MetroCity apartments towards Gwangali beach :

Headset loud trance tunes
moon follows
city seashore.

All the above haiku were written by me Matthew Thivierge and are subject to copyright.
Next week I'll have more haiku based on tea. Till then, stay inspired!

University Festivals in Busan

Yesterday night Pukyong National university had its school festival and rock concert. Today in the evening the neighbouring university Kyungsung dae had its festival on the beach at Gwangan. I snapped this photo of the event and wrote this haiku commemorating the monent :                   Hazy sun / Geumyeonsan Gwangan / Kyungsung Dae rock concert.

Hazy sun

cool wind gasps out

dying breath of spring

Via facebook I've been getting news of the violent thunder storms in my hometown Thunder Bay. I was surprised to hear of the lightening strike that shattered the stonework on a tall building there.

I was reminded of the times I'd take tea during storms, enjoying the sound of the rainfall. Here are a few articles on it. Ironically it was the hydro building that was hit, destroying one of the terra cotta turrets on the top corner of the building.

CBC reports damage can be repaired and here's another showing the damage

Thunder Bay

whole sky rumbles

kettle matches then whistles

Gwangali Shijo and a Haiku.

A haiku I wrote during last years rainy season. Sadly no typhoons on our way lately. I find them so exciting.

Typhoon at sea
Night clouds drift sprinkle rain
On the writing table moon.
 MWT.
Here are two pictures of Gwangali Bridge otherwise now known as 'Diamond Bridge' with Gwangali beach infront. It is my favorite beach in Busan.









The hill on the right is Igidae Hill half way up on it is a small temple. Yiran and I have met the monk there several times Dae Bang is his name.
On the extreme right you can see the Samick Beach Apartments and a black speck that is a statue of a red flower pot. Every night over the last few weeks its been either rainy or foggy in Gwangan so I still don't have a picture of the flower pot lit up nor the lights from the temple on the hill. If you're ever there in Gwangali at night, do look out to Igidae hill for the temple lights. They're quite beautiful.

I thought it appropriate to write a shijo about our neighborhood beach Gwangali, instead of the Japanese form haiku. Here are two versions of it : (I wish shijo were eight lines instead of six)

Diamond bridge shines in blue,
coffee shops bars a bustle

Igidae hill dark pyramid, lone light of a temple there
across at Cafe Pascucci, I slowly write this shijo,

Monk, poet here are both
United Nations observers.

Heres another version, with a different first couplet. Geumyeonsan is the mountain that faces the sea and Igidae hill is on a peninsula that stretches out into the sea making the beach area a bit of a bay. I wish I could fit Igidae in to the shijo form along with Geumeyonsan but alas, both don't seem to fit into the frame.

Sunset, clouds crest Geumyeonsan
Red flowerpot lit to gold

Igidae hill dark pyramid, lone light of a temple there
across at Cafe Pascucci, I slowly write this shijo,

Monk, poet here are both
United Nations observers.

MWT.

Cold weather & Seoul Shijo.

With the weather at times turning cold (-1C a few nights ago!) I've decided to post an old poem of mine. A haiku, in the English, with Korean translation by me.

Early autumn green
wind whispering other colors in cold
trees lean nearer to listen.

이린 카을 녹
바람 다른 색으로 차갑에 속삭인다
나무들이 기대어 그 소리를 듣는다.
-- Matthew Thivierge.

I'll get my wife to check my spelling later. My spelling is usually terrible.
I do love the word 속삭인다: to whisper. Its a word you _can_ whisper more smoothly than 'whisper'.

Heres a Shijo from a poet who wrote mostly in the 60s. Sadly the book I'm taking him from doesn't have the original Korean. Still, its a great read. As the poems in the book have translated so well, I'm dying to get my hands on the original Korean for them! Suffice: here's one by Seo-Pol. I'm sure many visiting Seoul or foreigners living there can relate to this one:

Seoul
Today I've come up to Seoul
and purchased a thousand acres of loneliness.
I wish to scatter it like mist;
sprinkle it like drizzling rain.
Penniless are my pockets, but I have a friend's
name card in its place.
-- So Pol (b. 1939).