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# / Author
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DCCI
Terry A. Steudlein
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under quilts
to keep warm
winter lovemaking
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DCCII
Zhanna P. Rader
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He drinks
from his late wife's tea cup,
hand trembling.
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DCCIII
Terry A. Steudlein
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mother's diary
found in the attic
she was young once too
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DCCIV
Zhanna P. Rader
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His snowdrop flowers —
her first, feeble smile
from the sickbed.
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DCCV
Michele Harvey
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treading carefully
on the icy sidewalk...
he pops the question
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DCCVI
Zhanna P. Rader
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A New-Year party —
he spills his feelings to her,
she spills coffee.
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BTW, love the humor of your coffee spilling ku. Very funny, Cheers, Michele
Thank you. I love yours about "treading carefully on the icy sidewalk." :) These two men in your and my haiku are surely in love. But do they choose the right time (or even a girl) for spilling out their feelings? :)
Now I'd like to see what will come out of the girl's doodling a new name. :) It sounds hopeful. :)
Zhanna |
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DCCVII
Michele Harvey
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April clouds...
she doodles a new name
on her notebook
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DCCVIII
Zhanna P. Rader
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Just want to be sure:
her name in his notebook,
crossed out.
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DCCIX
Michele Harvey
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new moon...
she slips his ID bracelet
off her arm
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DCCX
Zhanna P. Rader
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Stormy day —
he returns
her tanga.
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DCCXI
Michele Harvey
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downdraft...
the wood he chopped for her
last year
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DCCXII
Zhanna P. Rader
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Gone, all the wood
he chopped for me —
alone with the dying fire.
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DCCXIII
Terry A. Steudlein
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Gone, all the wood
he chopped for me —
dreams up in smoke
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(Note: the observation and resulting opinions below are mine. I do not claim any expertise. I may well be wrong. I frequently am - ha)
Hello Romantics!
Every so often, i peruse the Eros list for pure pleasure.
The haiku meander like a flowing stream, images fade away only to re-emerge later in another setting, another season...they flow in and out of each other and the effect is soothing and otherworldly.
As the images, words, and more than a few phrases are repeated, the repetition of two lines in this haiku series does not occur at all until DCCXIII.
i love hokkai (although the hokkai i have read and written only repeat one line) but after over 700 independent haiku, the repetition of two lines feels like a glitch and i must confess at first i thought the stanza had been repeated by mistake.
Michele used the phrase "the wood he chopped" and Zhanna used it in a complementary haiku in a different position and with a change in person ("for me" as opposed to michele's "for her")
Terry's stanza repeats Zhanna's first two lines exactly and in exactly the same place (L1 and L2). Because Zhanna's lines are related to Michele's haiku, the phrase:
"the wood he chopped" (for)
is repeated a whopping 3 haiku in a row. This is why I would have dealt with the dying fire. After all, if we didn't know he chopped wood, we do now! Just a thought,
hortensia |
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DCCXIV
Zhanna P. Rader
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Dreams up in smoke —
she becomes a man hater...
until her new spring love.
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DCCXV
Terry A. Steudlein
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spring love
the child looks so much like him
...only passing through
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DCCXVI
Zhanna P. Rader
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A SPA Club —
discussions of her new love
bubble in Jacuzzi.
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DCCXVII
Tanya Dikova
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looking into her eyes
he falls in love with...
himself
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| May I echo your haiku, Tanya? :) |
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DCCXVIII
Zhanna P. Rader
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Echo's eager eyes —
Narcissus falls in love...
with his own.
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DCCXIX
Michele Harvey
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mistletoe...
the kindling sparks
of a yule log
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DCCXX
Zhanna P. Rader
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Starry night
through the cafe's glass wall —
this music in my heart.
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DCCXXI
Tanya Dikova
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moonlit pillows —
nestled to me, he sings
a lullaby
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DCCXXII
Zhanna P. Rader
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Moon flowers —
he naps giving off a windy sound,
hand still on my breast.
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DCCXXIII
Hugh Bygott
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Summer revealing curves —
Her wayward lines that trip
and trap me.
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DCCXXIV
Zhanna P. Rader
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He offers her
a peeled apple and a rose —
sweet honeymoon.
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Please see the haiga made, with my haiku, by Tanya Dikova:
http://tinyurl.com/2462mv
Hi Zhanna. Beautiful haiga, enjoyed. Best, Michele
Thank you, Michele. Zhanna. |
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DCCXXV
Michele Harvey
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New Year's kiss...
the reverberations
of fireworks
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DCCXXVI
Lewis Sanders
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First dream
wet dream
with the street hustler
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DCCXXVII
Zhanna P. Rader
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Sultry night —
a park statue falls, breast nipples
pointing to the sky.
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DCCXXVIII
Michele Harvey
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Southern Comfort...
tango steps
across the snow
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DCCXXIX
Hugh Bygott
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Amid wild clary,
lips to lips we test desire . . .
so soon one from two.
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DCCXXX
Zhanna P. Rader
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The way his hand
slides down my side —
dogwood blossoms.
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DCCXXXI
Michele Harvey
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the way the snow
falls on the pines...
your smile
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DCCXXXII
Zhanna P. Rader
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Seaside vacations —
the sandpipers probe for worms,
you, for my love.
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DCCXXXIII
Lewis Sanders
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Church bells ringing
in my first Dream
I kiss the hustler's throat.
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DCCXXXIV
Zhanna P. Rader
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Spring-grass PE class —
her flashing red-lacquered
fingers and toes...
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DCCXXXV
Michele Harvey
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feeding chickens...
my neighbor gossips
about romance
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DCCXXXVI
Zhanna P. Rader
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Days later —
she puts together what's left
of her admirers' bouquets.
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DCCXXXVII
Lewis Sanders
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First dream
in this wet dream
Adonis rising
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DCCXXXVIII
Zhanna P. Rader
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She surfs the Web
for money — a pop-up urges,
"Enlarge your pennies."
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DCCXXXIX
Hugh Bygott
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Our eyes meet,
wordless speech in the summer heat . . .
love’s safety in silences.
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DCCXL
Zhanna P. Rader
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What he does not say,
she reads between the lines —
budding spring love...
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DCCXLI
Trish Shields
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nights spent
heating the winter air
coronal moonlight
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DCCXLII
Zhanna P. Rader
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Spring blossoms —
you say I turn you on, can you
return the favor?
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DCCXLIII
Lewis Sanders
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Night watch
First dream
wet dream
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DCCXLIV
Hugh Bygott
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First faint signs of Spring —
Mirrored in my eyes
she sees her desire.
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DCCXLV
Lewis Sanders
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Eros rising
First dream
morning birdsong
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DCCXLVI
Zhanna P. Rader
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Bad dream...
he wakes me up
with his kisses.
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DCCXLVII
Hugh Bygott
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First plum blossoms:
your fragrance among fragrance —
yet love so easily breaks. . .
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The Return of Eros [2008-Mar-24]
Dear Subscribers
Inspired by my visit to the Chiyo -Jo Museum in Matto, Japan, and independently by my discovery of Persian love poetry, I am re-launching Eros for the final time to take the haiku series up to the magical 1000 mark.
When Eros was started, the inspiration was Chiyo ni's sensuous poetry. This is still true. The wonderful character of classical hokku was not only the brevity and the conciseness of what was being said but also the allusions that were being made with such subtlety. We in the modern age find this so difficult to do. So often what is offered as a haiku is simply an empirical descriptive statement. In my view, the abandonment of the kigo has contributed to this. Bare empirical statements and haiku do not mix well. Ideally, a haiku should have layers of meaning, to use a modern phrase.
In the classical period, a hokku poet would often make a reference to another poet's work, even as far back as the Man'yôshû [VIII century] or the Kokinshû [X century].
I illustrate this in DCCXLVII:
First plum blossoms:
your fragrance among fragrance —
yet love so easily breaks. . .
The reference here is to Chiyo ni's
taoraruru
hito ni kaoru ya
ume no kana
to the one breaking it —
the fragrance
of the plum
[Donegan/Ishibashi translation]
This hokku has been criticised by some commentators, but I, a philosopher, find it superb.
Another example of Chiyo-ni's art is:
squatting
the frog observes
the clouds
[Donegan/Ishibashi translation]
Without researching Chiyo ni's meaning, few people would know that "the frog" is the poet herself, and "the clouds" refers to the family crest of persons directly involved in the visit of the Korean envoys. In fact, the Tokugawa Shogunate gave a gift to Korea of a publication of many of Chiyo ni's hokku.
I invite subscribers to contribute to Eros again remembering the importance of the kigo and the subtleties of meaning.
Hugh Bygott |
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DCCXLVIII
Zhanna P. Rader
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In his eyes
she is still blooming —
winter years.
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DCCXLIX
Hugh Bygott
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These bare willows at dusk:
the many passing things —
still you have not come!
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DCCL
Zhanna P Rader
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You used to say,
"Love is like snowflakes."
Now I just watch them.
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