Below are 6 (the 6th one has 3 different illustrations) haikus. These were written in 1995. I was living in Nagoya and was studying Japanese. So I thought one of the ways I could learn Kanji (Chinese characters) was to write haiku first in Japanese and then in English. Now some 10 years later I must admit I can still read those Kanjis I used in the poems but have forgotten a whole slew of others.
The idea of using ink drawings to illustrate them came about from several conversations with my friend Makoto Kaneya, an artist living in Noshiro Akita. He is an excellent painter and for those who would like to see his paintings his web site is http://www.makoto-arts.com/ . Anyway it is he who put me up to drawing and encouraged me to draw. Maybe if he would have known what he was starting he wouldn't have given me that pencil set...
All of these can be downloaded for free, but only the first one has no security settings. To print all of the others you will need to pay me whatever you think the print would be worth to you and I will send you the code. I still need to find a better copy of the first one, which is why this old scanned photocopy of the original, is free. The last three are all different versions of the same piece and have only one password between them.
Finally, all of the mistakes in the poems are mine.
Allan
The Cherry blossom — a small ship on the tar road
My quiet heart floating in Summer's blue sky order
The song of night — the mosquito's small voice in my ear order
On the calm sea the Seagull's voice echoes order
This floating world falling in my palms — Snowflakes order
In mountain of silence my heart has returned home order
