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Title: Dissection of the Haiku Tradition (5)

                                                                            Holidays and Observances

In my childhood home with three generations under the same roof, my grandfather controlled the TV channels.
These were the years when Japanese loved the Yomiuri Giants (a baseball team), Taiho (the Grand Sumo
Champion from 1961 to 1971) and tamagoyaki (a sweetened soy-flavored omelet). My grandfather liked all
these things, too. He preferred a kimono to western clothes. He did not go out without a hat. He never served
his own tea. He represents, in a way, the endangered traditions of Japan.

      the Super Bowl—
      every now and then
      all the houses cheer
                                                      Paul O. Williams (1)

My boyfriend, from my New York days, loved football. He watched the New York Giants’ game every Sunday. I
decided not to be a football widow. I wanted to be a part of the American mainstream. Even after we split, I
followed the career of Coach Bill Parcell (New York  New England  Dallas). I know football, don’t I?

         at dawn on Easter
         day laborers gathering
         as they always do
                                                     Patricia J. Machmiller (2)

Once upon a time, I dated a man from Venezuela. He never took off the cross that dangled from his neck. He
was pro choice. Who knows how many girlfriends he has had before, during and after me? I was surprised
when he showed up at my door in a suit and tie on Easter Sunday. He suggested we go to church. “You are a
hat person,” he said. “You can wear your most favorite hat to the mass.” He knew how to push my buttons.
I grew up in the society where people get married at a church and have a funeral at a Buddhist temple. I cannot
say I believe in God. But I like the idea of everything – a tree, a flower, a lake, a stone and a house – having its
own spirit.

              Independence Day—
              I let him touch
              a little bit of me
                                                              Fay Aoyagi (3)

When this haiku was first published in Frogpond, I was very much surprised to hear some people say it was
erotic. I use metaphor in haiku rather often. My haiku includes a lot of ‘I,’ ‘my,’ and ‘me.’ Haiku is a window for
the reader to explore my world. Independence Day is my adopted holiday. I rely on the concept of ‘reading
between the lines.’

              Thanksgiving alone:
              ordering egg and toast
              in an undertone
                                                              Nicholas Virgilio (4)

One of my friends confessed she was afraid to be alone on holidays. That is why she continued living with her
estranged husband.
A painter will step back to look at his work. An ice skater may videotape her practice session to check her
posture. The flicking of birthday candles on your tenth birthday was not the same as on your fiftieth.

I am a short person. I buy my pants in the children’s section. Some bathroom mirrors in hotels are too high for
me to apply lipstick. My neck gets tired after a cocktail reception. Yet I bend when I walk under the tree
branches. I squat to greet dogs on the street.

              silent night
              the singing hands
              of the deaf child
                                                      Jerry Kilbride (5)

In junior high school, our English teacher told us that listening to American music would help our pronunciation.
“Hyakuman nin no eigo”’ (“One Million People’s English”), an educational radio program, always ended with an
American popular song.
In the early eighties when I worked at a law firm in Tokyo, I went to a bar in Akasaka with my coworkers. A
Japanese singer with a perfect accent performed a Billy Joel song. My boss, a British lawyer, went to talk to
the singer. Surprisingly, the guy did not speak English at all. He said he just mimicked the record. It was a
mystery to me how he could put such sentiment into the lyrics he did not understand.

      jyunigatsu yoka gotsugotsu ishi bakari
                      December Eighth
                      rough and hardened
                      all these rocks
                                                              Naoto Hirose (6)

Pearl Harbor Day in Japan is December 8 due to the International Date Line. My Japanese saijiki lists a lot of
holidays, festivals, religious events and death anniversaries of famous people.
I often use Hiroshima Day or Nagasaki Anniversary in my haiku. Why do I come back to that theme again and
again? I think about the relationship between myself and August 1945. I measure the distance between me
and those August days. Sometimes my name becomes the fourth line of haiku. Because I am not Smith or
Mary, my name could cast a light on a reader. I am not saying that I am entitled to write a haiku about
Hiroshima Day just because I was born in Japan. I was born after World War II. I have never been to Hiroshima
or Nagasaki. My point is: holidays and observances reveal different colors to different eyes. How I respect
Martin Luther King. Jr. Day and how an African American celebrates it may not be the same. I may be too far
from Columbus Day. I may be never satisfied with my St. Patrick’s Day haiku. I may write about “shigure-ki”
(Basho’s death anniversary) only in Japanese.

      Chinatown New Year—
      down a dark alley
      to where my fortune is baking
                              Janeth Ewald (7)

I do not know exactly where my haiku path is leading me. Along the way, I zigzag, run, get lost, pause for a
while.

I will discuss rivers and oceans next time.

(1) Unpublished at the time of writing this article. Used with permission from the poet.
(2) Blush of Winter Moon, Jacaranda Press, San Jose, California 2001
(3) Chrysanthemum Love, Blue Willow Press, San Francisco, 2003
(4) The Haiku Anthology, edited by Cor van den Heuvel, W.W. Norton Company, New York and London, 1999
(5) The Day of Strawberries, edited by Paul O. Williams, Two Autumns Press, Salinas, California, 2004
(6) Gendai Saijiki (Modern Saijiki), edited by Tota Kaneko, Momoko Kuroda, Ban’ya Natsuishi, Seisei Shuppan,
Tokyo, 1977.   Translation by Fay Aoyagi
(7)   Mariposa 9, edited by Claire Gallagher and Carolyn Hall, published by Haiku Poets of Northern California,
2003