E-book project 2

This is the flow chart of the e-Oku no Hosomichi.
I have prepared all the necessary data. Just making final adjustments and refinements. I will send the data to my publisher soon.
The publisher will then convert the data compatible to various e-reader devices, such as PC, Mac, Kindle, Ipad, Nook, etc.

haiga 322

Haiku by Kikko Yokoyama, Tokyo, Japan.

Haiga 321

Haiku by Pete Yobu. It is raining here and so is in the haiga. Familiar smile, right?

Haiga 320

Haiku by Peter Yovu.
I do not know much about Yovu, except that he lives somewhere in Vermont, US.
If anybody knows his bio, please let me know.

For this haiga, I picked an old European painting. I then moved the arm of the lady in such a way that she waves it.
The lady is probably just holding the folds of her skirt, but looks like she is pregnant.

E-book project 1

I am in the process of compiling a haiga e-book "Narrow Road to the Deep North" by Matsuo, Basho.
The image here is the rough structure of this bilingual book. You read either English or Japanese text, and when you come to Basho's haiku, you simply click it, and then you get haiga for the haiku.

When completed, the e-book will be sold at Amazon, and other online shops. The e-book can be viewed on Kindle, Ipad, other e-reader devices, and PC monitors. I am working with a publishing firm in Los Angles, which has been supplying Japan related literatures to Amazon.

Haiga 319

Haiku by Stanford Forrrester.

Essentially, particles of dust are so light and minute that they can be blown away by a single puff of breath. If the cleaning is done promptly, dust can be cleared away easily. But dust accumulates quickly and, if we are negligent, the dust will in time pile up so high that the cleaning will be very difficult no matter how hard we attempt to sweep or wipe it away.
　　
Our use of the mind works in much the same way. The dust of the mind (self-centered thoughts, like hatred, self-love, greed, arrogance, and such) can accumulate and become habits of thought and conditioning even before we know it. To prevent this from happening, we need to be moderate about the use of our mind as we live each day.

Mind like clear sky, free of the dust of the mind, is the key to happy and healthy life.

Haiga 318

Haiku by Stanford Forrrester.

Haiga 317

Haiku by Stanford Forrrester. He is a poet, the past president of the Haiku Society of America, and the editor of bottle rocket: a collection of short verse. His work has been published six countries and have appeared in 17 anthologies.

I am not so much a fan of so-called Zen inspired haiku: it tends to limit the domain from where haiku springs. However, there are a few I like. Stanford san offers some of that.

Whatever one's faith is, how one views and appreciates the world and one's life becomes a good starting point of haiku. Haiku is not the divine words, but rather the human words.