Summer heat and haiku

Written originally May 4, 2008

Have had recently some stress-related problems, not sleeping etc...

I'm even contemplating of going to the morning meditation tomorrow, which means I'll have to get up at latest at 5am, to have the time to walk to the temple for 6am... Depends mostly on my evening, last sunday I had a migraine and decided to sleep instead of going. Zazen calms me down, so it's a viable option.

Anyways, I find I like composing haiku. I readily admit that they're FAR from being "real" fancy haiku, but as I was only told to put things I see and feel in a loose 5-7-5 form, they kind of work. Plus, as a foreigner even the fact that I manage to put together some kind of a poem makes the japanese all happy and excited. :) So, I don't know whether you're supposed to mention things like "sweat" in the summer poems, but hey, that's what I'm experiencing... I take the whole affair as a kind of a word play.

Here's one I just made for next wednesday's haikukai:

玉の汗　くっついた柄　夏稽古 ...and in english: Sweat drops, sticky hilt - Summer practise

Commentary: I practise iaido, a japanese sword martial art, and we use a practise sword modeled after real katana - meaning that the hilt is bound with cord. This cord becomes full of sweat, oil and dirt from your hands with time. It's bound to happen and doesn't bother for most of the time, but in summer the hilt feels even stickier than usually because the hands sweat more than when it's cooler. And with temps over 20C I'm usually red-faced and sweating like a pig. So that pretty much sums up how I felt today. :)