Wise words are snapshots. In three-sentence-structures with five-seven-five syllables, in snippets of one man’s movement across the cosmos, Japanese elder AshiAkira shares 496 of these precious moments in his new collection HAIKU POEMS [ISBN: 978-1-4834-6846-4].
As Ashi explains in his introduction, “By catching a glimpse of nature’s work, only a momentary spark, and jotting it down in words as a reflection of our mind, we may get closer to knowing it.”
Out of thousands he’s done, his first collection of haiku-style was randomly chosen by the 79-year-old poet, and each is as joyful as it is sacred. (He’s working on a new book now and it should be out soon.)
34
Wherever you are,
You are watching this same moon
Together with me.
65
Hear sparrows chirping.
I can tell what’s going on.
They can’t keep secrets.
85
Weather forecasters—
Basically honest people,
So I forgive you.
128
Clouds flowing away
Bring my words with you to her.
Stars twinkle like her eyes.
221
A crow on a branch
Watches other birds away
Like a lonely king.
283
Humming of mother
Long ago, but it still sounds
In my gray-haired head.
333
Dragonflies move fast.
They hover from time to time.
They see the world well.
377
Evening subway train,
Many people busy texting.
A child smiled at me.
414
The middle of August,
Anniversary of war’s end.
Hunger remembered.
466
Crows on a tree branch
In black robes like Buddhist monks
In meditation.
He writes: Since the haiku poems must be squeezed into such a small number of syllables, we need a special poetic license to write them: the license to kill, to kill the grammar. And, for now:
Whatever language
Say it in five-seven-five rhythm
My heart will follow
My friend AshiAkira’s new book is a beauty, a ravishing art, pleasing and easy on the eyes, and lovely to the heart.
Some writers make it seem easy to craft a story. Author Jacqueline Doyle is so friggin’ good she’s literally scared the crap outta me. Well, her eight stories did. I read the book in one sitting, and writing this good, it should be known about and shared. But not everyone wants to see inside the mind of a predator, or their prey. Or a serial killer. Or a victim. Eight chapters – that is it. Each story is unique, powerful, not technically graphic (blood and gore) but terrifying, and it is about horror -and the horrible.
The Missing Girl was published by Black Lawrence Press in 2017, and has already won the Black River Chapbook Competition.
One reviewer wrote: “In these dark and edgy stories, Doyle has made a dispassionate study of the degradation of girls and the twisted hearts of those who hunt them… Prepare to be very disturbed.”
This book is not for everyone. But those with the stomach for it, you won’t ever forget these stories.
I’m now reading Adam Rutherford’s new work! (top photo)
REVIEW: … Rutherford is the author of A BriefHistoryofEveryoneWhoEverLived: The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes. (excerpt) …Nor is Rutherford happy with some of those who seek to commercialise modern genomics, and in particular derides ancestry companies that have claimed their DNA tests reveal the identity of Jack the Ripper; that Prince William harbours Indian blood; and that it is possible to trace living descendants of the Queen of Sheba. This is “PR dressed up as research”, we are told. For Rutherford, modern genetics has far less to say about us as individuals than we have been led to believe. On the other hand, he is confident it sheds a great deal of light on us as a species. Demonstrating these divergent concepts is not easy. Happily, Rutherford is up to the task. He has produced a polished, thoroughly entertaining history of Homo sapiens and its DNA in a manner that displays popular science writing at its best.
What really caught my attention is the DNA bullshit ads luring in people …This DNA marketing is used like ammunition and The Holy Grail. And to my horror, we know they are storing our DNA results but are they using them in some way nefarious? DNA is our signature and belongs to humanity. It is not something a company should own. L/T
‘Dead White Men is not only a searing indictment of colonialism but also a painful reminder of the violence that underpins the logic of exploration. Each poem strikes at the heart of the issue: there are often unarticulated, unacknowledged Indigenous presences here that have been flattened over by the lies and mirages of empty landscapes. Dead White Men is a stinging and difficult journey, and one that continues to remind us that stolen land has always been the most pressing concern for Indigenous peoples and settlers. This is an absolutely essential book.’ – Jordan Abel, author of Injun
Looking for research on a particular topic? We walk you through the steps we use here at Journalist’s Resource.
*** The power of a name!
Trace. As a noun, a way or path. A course of action. Footprint or track. Vestige of a former presence. An impression. Minute amount. As a verb, to make one’s way. To pace or step. To travel through. To discern. To mark or draw. To follow tracks or footprints. To follow, pursue. – Lauret Savoy Thoughts
In order to remember, one must also forget. Otherwise each of us would drown in a sea of every detail of every experience of every day of our lives. To make sense of things, to function—to gain retrospect—we must forget, and instead sort what remains in memory. To remember—re-member—is to piece together constituent parts toward some whole. Re-membering is selecting, arranging, interpreting. “The memory is a living thing,” noted Eudora Welty, “it too is in transit.”
When I see from blog posts how much people are still reading, it puts me to shame. I spend so much time blogging, and reading things online, I never seem to get the chance to even open a book these days. I keep buying them though, both e-books, and real books!
I read somewhere that all those DNA and Ancestry sites that are so popular are mostly run by Mormons. Seems it is a multi-million dollar industry for them.
You know Pete, there are some people with shoe fetishes – they collect them obsessively. I might be that person but it is books. I read much as I write. As for the DNA ancestry ads on every TV channel, they are truly misleading and pure propaganda. And some people are buying into their bull. (I try not to encourage adoptees to use them for ancestry but to find their blood relatives.)
Thank you for sharing your reading list, I find inspiritation in that way – books I would never know or hear of, and the challenge to try new directions.
Thanks PV. I so appreciate your visit. I agree on the book list – I took a class a few years ago and they said there are 75 million books out there. That hurts to think about. How can we ever know what is good and worth our time?
Ouch, that’s a jolt, never thought of that, just that I’d never get through too many. I think they’re worth our time when they move us or challenge us in some way.
I agree. The publishers would say “believe us” – how their authors are the best. I like to hear friends like you tell me what you are reading. That means more.
I read through that excerpted article to which you linked, drawn from Rutherford’s book “A New History…” The subject matter definitely caught my eye. He shines some good light on much of the over-hyped and over-sold ballyhoo around genetic testing, and straightens out a little of the folklore around North American indigenous presence. However, I still find his underlying mindset Western, colonized, and only slightly separated from conventional dogma. He is quite free with his own value judgements on outcomes or perceptions that are not his to own; he makes broad allowances that steer the dialogue back toward flawed stricture, rather than allowing for completely refreshed perceptions. This partial paragraph in particular grabbed me:
“…the narrative of migration does not threaten European identity in the same way that it might for the people we called the Indians. The scientifically valid notion of the migration of people from Asia into the Americas may challenge Native creation stories. It may also have the effect of conflating early modern migrants from the 15th century onward with those from 24,000 years earlier, with the effect of undermining indigenous claims to land and sovereignty.”
His use of “might, may, and effect” introduce a colonized doubt-casting on to what is already a colonized, projected portrayal of various indigenous self-stories. It is possible that this new crop of “problems” is entirely made up, on top of the previous set of analyses and disparities. I don’t think those original stories find themselves conflicted at all. They fit the People’s world-view. There’s the main issue: worlds collide, and one is insisting they have a lock on the pursuit of truth.
I totally agree Rich. It reminds me of the measuring of skulls which they tout as a scientific method. I just got the book – I will see all that he believes.
Lara Trace Hentz 
When I see from blog posts how much people are still reading, it puts me to shame. I spend so much time blogging, and reading things online, I never seem to get the chance to even open a book these days. I keep buying them though, both e-books, and real books!
I read somewhere that all those DNA and Ancestry sites that are so popular are mostly run by Mormons. Seems it is a multi-million dollar industry for them.
Best wishes, Pete.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You know Pete, there are some people with shoe fetishes – they collect them obsessively. I might be that person but it is books. I read much as I write. As for the DNA ancestry ads on every TV channel, they are truly misleading and pure propaganda. And some people are buying into their bull. (I try not to encourage adoptees to use them for ancestry but to find their blood relatives.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for sharing your reading list, I find inspiritation in that way – books I would never know or hear of, and the challenge to try new directions.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks PV. I so appreciate your visit. I agree on the book list – I took a class a few years ago and they said there are 75 million books out there. That hurts to think about. How can we ever know what is good and worth our time?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ouch, that’s a jolt, never thought of that, just that I’d never get through too many. I think they’re worth our time when they move us or challenge us in some way.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree. The publishers would say “believe us” – how their authors are the best. I like to hear friends like you tell me what you are reading. That means more.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m with that, and the same – thanks for sharing yours. It makes the world go round.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oooh, eager to dig in to these books. Thanks for the recommendations.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Laura! Thank you!
LikeLike
Sounds like a whole lot of shakin’ goin’ on in many a woodpile! Here’s to DNA testing making a bunch of genes fit a little too snug…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I will post more book reviews KC, lots of good reads. The DNA stuff is marketing, pure and simple.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I read through that excerpted article to which you linked, drawn from Rutherford’s book “A New History…” The subject matter definitely caught my eye. He shines some good light on much of the over-hyped and over-sold ballyhoo around genetic testing, and straightens out a little of the folklore around North American indigenous presence. However, I still find his underlying mindset Western, colonized, and only slightly separated from conventional dogma. He is quite free with his own value judgements on outcomes or perceptions that are not his to own; he makes broad allowances that steer the dialogue back toward flawed stricture, rather than allowing for completely refreshed perceptions. This partial paragraph in particular grabbed me:
“…the narrative of migration does not threaten European identity in the same way that it might for the people we called the Indians. The scientifically valid notion of the migration of people from Asia into the Americas may challenge Native creation stories. It may also have the effect of conflating early modern migrants from the 15th century onward with those from 24,000 years earlier, with the effect of undermining indigenous claims to land and sovereignty.”
His use of “might, may, and effect” introduce a colonized doubt-casting on to what is already a colonized, projected portrayal of various indigenous self-stories. It is possible that this new crop of “problems” is entirely made up, on top of the previous set of analyses and disparities. I don’t think those original stories find themselves conflicted at all. They fit the People’s world-view. There’s the main issue: worlds collide, and one is insisting they have a lock on the pursuit of truth.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I totally agree Rich. It reminds me of the measuring of skulls which they tout as a scientific method. I just got the book – I will see all that he believes.
LikeLiked by 1 person
[…] is a skilled master of Haiku who lives in Tokyo, Japan. I wrote an earlier review of his work here (when he was 79 years […]
LikeLike