f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

icicles drip on the sill

   a pile of bills waiting

        to be paid

 

 

leaning back

in their chairs

old friends reunited

 

 

Carolyn Hall from A New Resonance 2: Emerging Voices  (Red Moon Press, 2001)

credits:  “icicles drip” – Acorn 3

“leaning back” – Frogpond XXII:3 

Snowmen always make me smile. Ever since I encountered the idea of a Snow Buddha
in the haiku of Kobayashi Issa, I have been fascinated and delighted by the concept.
Although I’m not a buddhist, I concur that there is no intermediary between the individual
and the divine, that we each need to strive to be “awakened” and enlightened, and that
impermanence (flux, change) is the state of all things. [Buddha is not god; the word means
“awakened one.”]

For me, a snow Buddha represents creativity and play, along with the cycle that returns
all things to their original state and begins anew. The end of one year and the beginning
of a new year seems like an especially good time to think about — and, if possible, make
— snow Buddhas. So let’s end 2004 and begin 2005 with thoughts, photos (click for the original,
full-sized versions), and haiku featuring snow Buddhas. May this annual cycle bring enlightenment
and joy! [update: Start here to see our multi-faceted, 3-part series about snowmen.]

Photo-Haiku Gallery by drussell

In two verses of his Remembrance of Buddha, Rev. Tasogare Shinju tells us:

The snow Buddha knows something

Water and air.

I need to breathe and drink,

so hurry up and melt.

Impermanence,

Who can say it.

Already gone.

Great compost heap.

original photo by Alison Shumway, via Chad W. Shumway

Naturally, Kobayashi Issa has some interesting perspectives to add:

first snow–
even a lump of it
is Buddha

first snow
making a Buddha of you
is hard too

a sparrow chirping
in his lap…
snow Buddha

naughty child–
instead of his chores
a snow Buddha

he’s holding one
snowball…
the Buddha

guard the haiku
I beseech you!
snow Buddha

Kobayashi Issa – translated by David G. Lanoue

– click here for two dozen snow/buddha haiku

just enough snow
for a Buddha —
too much snow

wintry mix
the kids make a snow buddha
for Santa

unseasonably warm
a puppy laps up
our snow buddha

snow turns to rain –
our Buddha’s visit
cut short

………………….. by dagosan / David Giacalone

first snow…
the children’s hangers
clatter in the closet

– click for orig. photo-haiku by Michael Dylan Welch

after snowfall
a Buddha on the lawn
with coal eyes

……………………. from Presents of Mind, by Jim Kacian