Japan Book Club: The Narrow Road to the Deep North – Part 3
Poetry about kitchen appliances frolicking in a field rocks!
This week we’ll go ahead and finish The Narrow Road to the Deep North . Just like last week, we’re going to take a closer look at the poetry in Basho’s work. Only this time instead of focusing on Basho’s haiku, we’re going to write one of our own.
You can use the dozens of Basho poems in the text to help you (there’s about a hundred of them at the end of the document we sent you), but remember – most haiku follow a few simple rules:
- They’re usually about nature.
- They have three lines.
- The lines are 5, 7, and 5 syllables long.
(Yes, for those of you that are a little more knowledgeable about Japanese culture and literature, haiku aren’t quite as simple as these three rules, but for our purposes – which is to just try it out – these rules will do.)
This week your assignment is to take a walk alone around the neighborhood. Concentrate hard on the little things that you may not have ever noticed before – a tree, a rock, a pond, a flower, even a puddle… Take a camera with you (your camera phone will do just fine) and snap a picture of something that inspires you.
Either right there in… well, where ever it is you’re standing – a neighbor’s yard, a park, a puddle… OR when you get back home… take a few moments to reflect upon what you saw (and how it made you feel, or what made you stop and take a picture of it). Now do your best to compose a haiku about your picture.
Email the picture to us at MinookaTAP2@gmail.com along with your poem. Then post your poem in the comments section of this page. As we receive them, we’ll post the pictures on the main page.
Every student in our Japan group is required to participate. You must come back and comment on what other people have written (be nice).
Next week, we’ll start the next book – The Old Man Mad About Drawing by Francois Place. We’ve been telling you about this one for several months now, so everyone should have a copy. If you don’t get it from the library or a bookstore now. After that, we’ll be reading Bushido: The Soul of Japan a story about the samurai by Inazo Nitobe – you can look for a copy if you want, but I will be sending everyone a free ebook copy of Bushido when we get to it.
Minooka TAP 
Tree in solitude
Shunned from cruel society
A loner for life
wowww Persephone your haiiku is amazing i really liked how you put big words in their, it must have been hard to write this haiiku xD
Actually, it wasn’t to bad. The first line I was already thinking of when I saw this tree and then it sort of blossomed from there. I came up with words that I thought would describe it and used that for it.
I think this haiku was really good! You’re an amazing writer, this really out a picture in my head.
I think your poem describes what a lot of kids feel now a days. It reminds me of how kids are shunned because of how different they are and how your poem not only connects with nature but with society itself.
Oh fish that once was
You loved your life in silence
Yet you became lunch
haha lol Ben, fishy tasted yummy >:3
This one made me laugh, even though i hate fish. Poor fish!!
That is really well written but I can’t help but be bothered that it was eaten. The middle line seems the most poetic to me because fish don’t really do much and you just put them in a new light.
HAHA! Ben, this one made me laugh! xD It is also really nice by the way. I would have made that fish into sushi. Yum.
That poor fish… How did it taste?
And now, Alex is hungry. I like how you were able to sum up a whole life of a fish, very cleaver.
Oh large tree reaching
For the sky high above your leaves
Only to reach clouds
i really like your haiiku it makes sense and i can understand it very well. 🙂
I really liked this haiku I like how you can describe a tree in many different ways with out being wrong. A tree was almost going to be my inspiration as well.
I like that your haiku at first glance was simple sounding. Though once you reread it, it becomes very complex.
This haiku was really good! This can be compared to many other things in life. I love it.
I like that fact that your haiku was good, and still simple and easy to understand 🙂 good job!
Grass stirining softly
Animals singing loudly
Trees being silent
The personification in your haiku is great. Once again, I love how this poem put things in a new light. Not only is grass soft, but it is stirring. That sort of thing is what I feel makes poetry great.
as the tree awaits
it starts to blossom an apple
waiting to be picked
A weeping flower
In the fall, waits for winter
Surrenders to death
That’s amazing blair. It was very moving, also it relates to humans to surrendering to a small enemy or a quite large one that does not live.
I love how this poem makes me feel bad for the flower. It makes me feel like a person is dying, and I’m hoping it survives.
i also liked how you made me (the reader) feel differently about a flower because most of the time you would think of a flower as being perky or happy
it almost shows how some people feared the ocean in the big wave! great job.
I hear birds singing
I see nothing but land and trees
I love going camping
i like that you took a personal experience for yours! i havent been camping in years 😛
old and wooden chair
lies silently and harmless
in search of people
Wow !!! your poem gave me a clear picture . I love how you used personification…. very unique . One of my favorite haikus yet !
poor chair, sounds like he needs a friend D:
I would sit in that chair so he could have a friend
I love your haiku. It gives you a clear image of the chair and what the dreams of.
That haiku was excellent I could imagine where there chair was and how it was just all alone.
Cattails by the pond
Goes with the flow of the wind
Without a purpose
i like that you noticed the cattails out of everything in a lake when u could have done the tall grass or the fish or even the water
its so nice how you can pick the most simplest thing ever and make a haiku so great out of it.
Little grasshopper,
You see the world different,
How large it all seems
The grasshopper feels and sees all the world in a different way, and this makes me imagine what it would be like to be such a small creature on this huge planet.
I like how you wrote it thinking of how the grasshopper would think.
Oh dead, lonely weed
Laying breathless with no life
Waiting to its death
The world sees the bee
sitting on pretty flowers
drinking sweet pollen
As the sun rises
through the ever so green trees
It’s just breathtaking
I love your description, it gives me chills of how amazing it is.
I think everyone’s Haiku is awesome especially Persephone’s and Hannah’s. They use great personification and details. They are all well written and thought out. I was so inspired by all the poems. Great job everyone 🙂
A gleaming acorn
Joined only by a droplet
Soon to be forgot
This haiku made me sit down and think. It was wonderful in only twelve words and seemed to have a more “mysterious” feeling to it than a few others I have read over.
As I walk this path
The two lakes taunt me throughout
How I wan’t to fish
i think i did my first poem wrong . So here is my new one :
I hear birds singing
I see nothing but land and trees
oh sweet mother natuer
Night sky is haunting
Almost scaring me away
Morning brings me peace
that is an awsome haiku Meghan. it kind of give off a creepy feeling
The tree withers and dies
Beatiful and colorful
The leafs are changing
I like this poem, it makes me think of fall. Which is one of my favorite seasons.
Floating through the sky
While holding my head high
Kiss my tree goodbye
once beautiful
grass has now a nasty weed
just wanting to spread
This haiku is amazing, I especially like the last line talking about the weed wanting to spread.
narrow stream frozen
fish stuck going down the stream
pine needles stick on
Beating wind rusles through
But not strong enough to break
The pampus grass’ stalk