19 June, 2013

The Brushwood

Snow on the Gate


the brushwood
though cut for fuel
is beginning to bud
 
-Nozawa Boncho

1 comment:

Hobbes said...

Boncho does not get a huge amount of recognition. Perhaps this elegant haiku will convince you that he should. He lived from 1640 - 1714, and worked as a medic.

A powerful haiku should cause the reader to feel something. If a haiku leaves you feeling emotionless, it has not worked. When I read Boncho, especially this haiku with its feeling of hope, I feel rather happy.

Boncho's optimism is vivid, and tangible in this poem.

A haiga is not "supposed" to be merely an illustration of the text; here, the photograph is of the wood-pile in my garden, to which I feel a particularly close emotional bond: they are branches from our willow tree, which I diligently sliced into logs for the fire one summer, in the very shade of that same willow tree.

Now, the willow tree is born again, as it is "beginning to bud" from the woodpile, after being "cut for fuel".

After death, life again. Boncho's optimism is infectious.


Toodlepip,

Hobbes