I picked up this book of free-verse haiku quite by chance. I am not much for haiku...some of them I find too brief to be useful, too enigmatic at times and on occasion, as though trying too hard to be wise in their brevity.
The introduction to the book establishes the fact that Santoka has a favorable lineage, as far as modern haiku goes. That set my worries at rest.
One thing with haikus is that you are guaranteed quick reading. You know you are not into some byzantine poem which has endless references to Greek mythology or some other arcane subject matter and which goes on and on. Here the achievement level is higher, because you merrily skip from verse to verse with great speed, only having to swallow few lines each time.
That feeling of breeziness seemed speeded up somewhat with Santoka's verses. Because he describes his walking in the Japanese countryside, his haikus are constantly on the move too. The book is in fact a combination of journal entries he kept on his travels and his haikus.
Santoka set off on the first of his walking trips in 1926. "It is uncertain just what impelled him to embark on these wanderings. Such journeys were often part of the religious training of Buddhist monks..." as the introduction puts it.
But whatever his motive, Santoka was brutally honest about the whole enterprise: "Talentless and incompetent as I am, there are two things I can do, and two things only: walk, with my own two feet; compose, composing my poems."
Some samples of his many "moving" verses...and for once, I will readily acknowledge the stark simplicity and profound imagery of his haiku...and, as a bonus, impish humor too!
7
the deeper I go
the deeper I go
green mountains
8
wet to the skin
the stone here
pointing out the path.
9
blazing sky above me
walking
begging
...
11
watching the moon
go down
me alone
...
16
road running
straight ahead
lonely
...
19
slipped
fell down
mountains are silent
...
30
no help
for the likes of me
I go on walking
...
41
dipped up
moonlight water
drank my fill
...
46
not a cloud in sight
off comes my hat
...
54
I don't care
if it does rain --
it rains
...
70
how must I look
from behind
going off in the drizzling rain.
74
passing through
dialects
I don't understand.
...
80
come along
a mountain path
talking to myself.
...
97
all day
in the mountains
ants too are walking.
...
106
sleep
where the the moonlight
reaches my bedding.
...
144
lunch today
sitting on the grass
two tomatoes
...
148
no desire to die
no desire to live
the wind blows over me
...
166
no one comes
to see me
peppers turning red
...
and of course, beauty of a different kind too...
196
spring snow falling
woman
so very beautiful
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