Year-End Haiku

An early, not quite Friday, poetry post.

Here in Kamakura, I am surrounded by Buddhist temples. Most of them date back centuries, since Kamakura was the capital of Japan during the Kamakura Period (1192-1333). Some of these temples are vast with imposing gates, spacious meditation halls, tea houses, gardens, and extensive grounds. Some are hidden deep in finger valleys. Many nestle up against steep cliffs riddled with caves. Others are tiny and unassuming, tucked between ordinary houses.

On my morning running routes, I pass multiple temples, one of which, Jissoji (実相寺), displays seasonal haiku on a copper-roofed signboard by the entrance gate. The haiku are changed regularly, and the poems meander through my mind as I run my back-lane route to the sea.

Today is New Year's Eve day--or in Japanese ōmisoka (大晦日). By now most folks here have completed their top-to-bottom house and garden cleaning--discarding unneeded items and tidying every corner. They have shopped for and displayed their New Year's decorations. They have purchased New Year's feast foods. They are ready to ring in the new year--literally, by lining up at temples for a turn to ring the huge bronze bells after midnight.

Here is the haiku on the temple signboard at Jissoji this week.


捨ててこそ
得るものもあり
年の暮れ

sutete koso
urumono mo ari
toshi no kure

And here is my rough translation:

discarding
as well as acquiring
year's end




Here is the unassuming temple itself.



And here are a few of my own haiku at this 2015 year's end:

.....

temple signboard
reading while running
haiku stumble

.....

evening chimes
dark and quiet settle in
but not neighbor dog

.....

words cast off
others nailed in place
the writer's clock

.....

Do you have some year-end haiku to share?