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Shinobazu Pond 俳句
@shinobazupond.bsky.social
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A Haiku Notebook - written and posted by Tim Chamberlain | Tokyo, Japan. 🌿 https://shinobazupond.blogspot.com/
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But, appropriately enough, the gate was firmly closed! 😆

the morning glory -
all day long, a bolt
fastened on my gate

- Matsuo Basho
(trans. Makoto Ueda)

2/2
A view of the side entrance to the Sekiguchi Basho-an, with the wooden gate firmly closed (photo taken an hour or so before its usual closing time!).
November 22, 2025 at 6:10 AM
shinobazupond.bsky.social
Yesterday, I went to visit the Sekiguchi Basho-an.

Along this road
Goes no one,
This autumn eve.

- Matsuo Basho
(trans. R.H. Blyth)

1/2
A view of a river with a steep, curved concrete embankment and a traditional Japanese gateway into a tree-filled enclosure. Some of the trees are turning an autumnal red, under a clear blue sky.
November 22, 2025 at 6:03 AM
shinobazupond.bsky.social
Written with an archaeologist's eye on the so-called era of the "Dark Ages." ⚔️
------------------------
#SenseWrds Prompt 146
#blueskypoetry #blueskypoets
Screenshot of a poem which reads as follows: BRITANNIA’S END After an old Anglo-Saxon poem fragment, ‘The Ruin.’ Following the well-cobbled roads their conquering fore-fathers laid, the last Legionaries left. Returned to Rome, slowly their white-rimed ruins receded into a ghostly realm. Four hundred Imperial summer’s yielded, and white-winter enfolding the land; oak, ash and elder, awaiting a new era. The old stones, wyrd broken; the mysterious work of giants spoken only of, in mythic tones. Snow-shrouded, whited out, colourful pavement tiles and gaudy painted plaster walls. Landed parchments scraped clean, deed-scripts drawn upon age-faded palimpsests; bounds still echoing ages afore. So, whited-winter brought, a welcome return to brown wood and earth; the hearth-warm hubbub of the meadhall’s gilded ease. White-misted breath, hailing the bard’s word-hoarded tales of old; eyes glinting, goldbright, and mood-glad. So slept the land, ready to wake; awaiting the rejuvenating warmth of ground-greening Spring: Bringing a new dawn, and a new idea of all that Albion might be. By Tim Chamberlain, 2025.
November 19, 2025 at 3:25 AM
shinobazupond.bsky.social
Overhead -
the starry night’s
absinthe-tinted glow.

#whistpr prompt: starry
#haiku ✨ #vangogh
#artinspired 🎨🖌️
‘Starry Night’ by Vincent Van Gogh. Painted in June 1889, it depicts the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, just before sunrise, with the addition of an imaginary village under a swirling vortex of stars and the Moon.
November 8, 2025 at 5:47 AM
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I have two poems in the new edition of "Chrysanthemum 35 (October, 2025)." Many thanks to editor, Beate Conrad. It's fascinating to see my haiku translated into German. Read the whole issue here: www.chrysanthemum-haiku.net/media/Chrysa...
Screen shot of a page from Chrysanthemum 35 (October, 2025), which has two haiku in English by Tim Chamberlain, each translated into German: curtains / breathing / in and out [Vorhänge / atmen / ein und aus]; every star / outlasting / all our ills [jeder Stern / überdauert / all unser Lied].
October 19, 2025 at 11:12 PM
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Tea and poetry. Always a good combo. 🍵
A copy of “The Old Tea Seller - Baisao: Life and Zen Poetry in 18th Century Kyoto” translated by Norman Waddell (Counterpoint, 2008), lying on a wooden tabletop with an embroidered blue, red, white and yellow, Turkish-carpet-style bookmark.
September 18, 2025 at 4:39 AM
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And my first poem for Fresh Out (posted on your Facebook page on 8 August) appears not to have made it to Bluesky.
Screenshot of a haiku by Tim Chamberlain posted on Fresh Out's Facebook page (8 August 2025), which reads: a hand waving - the last leaf at the top of the tree
September 12, 2025 at 11:45 PM
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Actually, this poem is by me.
Screenshot of a haiku by Tim Chamberlain, as it appeared on Fresh Out's Facebook page. The poem reads: heavy with rainwater the blossom head breaks with the breeze
September 12, 2025 at 11:39 PM
shinobazupond.bsky.social
Harvest festival
soon becomes a fiesta -
sparrows amid the barley.

#dailyhaikuprompt harvest / sparrow
#haiku
An old 'Ladybird Book' illustration by C.F. Tunnicliffe of 'Sparrows Raiding Corn.' A flock of small brown sparrows is seen fluttering over and eating the ripe golden heads of a crop of wheat, corn or barley in a field stretching to the horizon, with wild flowers, poppies, and butterflies in the foreground.
September 9, 2025 at 3:48 AM
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Made it into the Mainichi Shimbun again this week. #haiku
Screenshot of the Mainichi Shimbun's Haiku in English webpage (4 September 2025), featuring a haiku by Tim Chamberlain which reads: A white egret in the rice field, upside down.
September 4, 2025 at 12:42 AM
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The first of two new poems by me which both came out today. The other is in what (I'm very sad to say) will be the last issue of 'Failed Haiku' (Issue #111): failedhaiku.com/2025/08/31/i... #haiku #poetry #shortverse
Screenshot of a haiku by Tim Chamberlain, as it appeared on Fresh Out's Facebook page. The poem reads: heavy with rainwater the blossom head breaks with the breeze
September 1, 2025 at 2:45 PM
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The missing poem, as posted on Fresh Out's Facebook page:
Screenshot of the missing poem, as posted on Fresh Out's Facebook page. The haiku by Tim Chamberlain reads: heavy with rainwater the blossom head breaks with the breeze
September 1, 2025 at 2:31 PM
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As posted on Facebook earlier this month: @freshoutmag.bsky.social #haiku
Screenshot of a haiku by Tim Chamberlain, which reads: a hand waving - the last leaf at the top of the tree
August 19, 2025 at 9:18 PM
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Awesome tune! ♥️ - Thank you for un-erasing my memory! 😎👍
Still of a scene from the movie 'Men in Black' (1997) showing actors, Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith, wearing suits and sunglasses. Jones is holding a device which when activated wipes people's memories.
August 19, 2025 at 1:39 AM
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I made it into The Mainichi Shimbun today! - Many thanks to Dhugal J. Lindsay. #haiku
Screenshot of The Mainichi daily 'Haiku in English' webpage for 14 August 2025, featuring a haiku by Tim Chamberlain, which reads: Returning to the same lotus leaf - a dragonfly.
August 14, 2025 at 12:59 AM
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Slipping into
the sea, the sun
brazing the sky.

#BSPP prompt: 34 - "Ekphrastic Skies"
#haiku JMW Turner - 'Sea and Sky' (c. 1825-1830)
Tate Britain #BlueSkyPoetry 🌅
JMW Turner - 'Sea and Sky' (c. 1825-1830) Tate Britain: A watercolour sketch, predominantly in yellow, orange and grey, showing the evening sun setting into the sea (amid low clouds) along the centre line of the horizon; the main effect is a scene of burnished gold and brooding dark cloud over a largely still seascape, transected by a bright stripe of sunlight reflected upon the sea.
July 16, 2025 at 7:42 AM
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#wss366 prompt: bounty ⚓️
#shortverse #blueskypoetry
Screenshot of a short poem by Tim Chamberlain (2025), which reads: BLIGH’S BOUNTY A small ship stuck in a smaller bottle, brewing a tempest of dark cloud within; rudely wrested from his sole command, set adrift and abandoned all at sea, Captain Bligh muttering of misfortune and mutiny, in an open boat nursed across 3,500 nautical miles of dead reckoning – by an unforgiving ego; seething more with every swell survived, outriding fate and rigging out for fame as sure as the bountiful sea’s return; Captain’s word is law, self-regarding, he swore: “Ye shall reap as ye didst sow.”
July 15, 2025 at 2:41 PM
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Nice to find myself in such good company. Thanks to editor,
Kelly Moyer (Failed Haiku #110). #haiku #senryu

Full Issue available here: failedhaiku.com/2025/06/30/f...
Screenshot of a haiku/senryu, which reads: "a bare bough - why am I troubled by the wind? Tim Chamberlain Shinobazu Pond 俳句" from 'Failed Haiku,' Vol. 10, Issue 110 (July, 2025), p. 144.
July 3, 2025 at 12:48 AM
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Fruits of this weekend’s bookshop foraging in Tokyo. 😊
Photo shows a new hardback copy of “Soseki Natsume’s Collected Haiku” translated by Erik R. Lofgren (Tuttle, 2024), lying on a wooden table top. The dust jacket is mostly brown and black text on a very light olive green background with some yellow flower illustrations along the spine.
June 29, 2025 at 3:32 PM
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Two strangers,
tilting umbrellas
- taking in a rainbow.

#haiku #senryu 🌈 ☔️
#tokyo 26 June 2025
Almost half an arc of a perfect rainbow arching high over the Tokyo skyline, with the echo of a second rainbow beside it. Photo taken 7pm on 26 June 2025.
June 26, 2025 at 10:07 AM
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Very pleased to be back in the Asahi Shimbun again today, with a third haiku this month - Thanks to David McMurray.
#俳句 #English俳句 #俳句inEnglish #haiku
#senryu #川柳 #English川柳 #川柳inEnglish

AHN: www.asahi.com/ajw/articles...
Screenshot of a haiku by Tim Chamberlain: Quiet Sunday afternoon - wife and I pleating gyoza.
June 20, 2025 at 9:42 AM
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Returning to an old and familiar friend …
An old paperback copy of “Poems of the Late T’ang” translated by A.C. Graham (1965), lying on a wooden table top with an embroidered Turkish-carpet-style bookmark in blue, red, white and yellow. The cover illustration shows two kneeling archers, a detail on a silk painting from Dunhuang, China, c.8th-10th century AD.
June 20, 2025 at 9:34 AM
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Today, only a half-moon bridge:

A lunar-grey ellipse
- waxing gibbous,
over a green pool.

#haiku at Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens.
A photo of me (Tim Chamberlain) standing beside an old weathered grey stone bridge arching over a murky pool of water beneath abundantly green trees. This bridge, built during the Edo-era Shogunate by a Daimyo who founded the gardens, is one of the main centerpieces of Koishikawa Korakuen, near Tokyo Dome. The bridge is designed to reflect a full-moon-like perfect circle in the still water below. No such luck today though.
June 8, 2025 at 2:19 AM
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Subtracting slivers of sky
- riverine refractions rebound,
across a ribbon-cut conduit.

#haiku after ambling around Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens yesterday.
Photo by Tim Chamberlain (taken at Koishikawa Korakuen, 7 June 2025) looking along a channel of water between green banks of grass and trees under a blue sky with white clouds, linear striated reflections of these surroundings can be seen playing across the dark surface of the water, crisscrossing the conduit.
June 8, 2025 at 1:51 AM
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The second of my poems in today's Asahi Haikuist Network; nicely paired too. [2/2]
#俳句 #English俳句 #俳句inEnglish #haiku
#senryu #川柳 #English川柳 #川柳inEnglish

AHN: www.asahi.com/ajw/articles...
Screenshot from the 'Notebook' section of the Asahi Haikuist Network (6 June 2025), featuring my second poem, which reads: "Holidaying in Spilt, Croatia, Chamberlain observed the calm, Buddha-like patience of the stray cats who lived by the open-air tables of the restaurants at the square in the old town area. David Cox got out of the rain at a cafe in Chisinau, Moldova. Sweet scent of fried fish --a cat’s closed-eyes smile, beside our table * * * cat cafe ginger tom falls in love with my soggy sweater"
June 6, 2025 at 1:51 AM