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Winter 2005, vol 3 no 4

HAIKU

Featured Poet: Fay Aoyagi
 

Fay Aoyagi is a storyteller. "I don't write haiku to tell the weather. I write to tell my stories." And she does just that. Aoyagi writes haiku with a distinct personal imprint. "There is a lot of 'me' in my haiku." Interestingly enough, her first name, Fay, in Japanese, means to fly. The poet takes readers on a journey into her mindset, a mind that has a unique take on life and the world around her.

 

hydrangea rain ---
a letter from the land
of soy sauce

 

yellow daffodils
an urge to
buy a banjo

 

Excerpted from Chrysanthemum Love

Aoyagi's haiku flow, do not "tell all", and rise above the mediocrity all too common in the English speaking haiku world. Her haiku resonate and are indelible. Her book, Chrysanthemum Love, is a book I find myself reading again and again.

Enjoy this sampling of Fay Aoyagi's haiku.

Robert Wilson

 

HAIKU

 
I always count
in my native tongue--
Buddha's Birthday		  
   
  three o'clock sun--
a trail to the kingdom
of ants
   
a shooting star
sand dollars accepted
at the toll bridge		  
   
  hint of autumn--
I rewind
a Kurosawa film
 
I will not let go
of Dragon King's tail--
autumn deepens		  
   
  autumn rain
the moon inching away
from our planet
 
night chill
rearranging the order
of canned soups		  
   
  frozen moon--
RSVP invitation
from the fox god
 
   

Fay Aoyagi Fay Aoyagi was born in Tokyo.

She immigrated to the U.S. in 1984.

She writes haiku in English and Japanese.

Copyright 2006: Simply Haiku