The Spirit of the chrysanthemum on a perfect Fall day, said Princess Haiku

Tomorrow I will be going to my first Chrysanthemum Festival and I hope to return with a zillion gorgeous photos.

“They’re the most beautiful flower you can imagine,” said Irv Baker, president of the Chrysanthemum Society of Marin, which produces the juried flower show. “There are roughly between 3,500 and 4,000 cultivars and you can do anything you want with them.” The Chrysanthemum Society has been holding a flower show since 1954. Baker said it has become so popular, growers come from as far away as Sacramento, Stockton, even Los Angeles, to display their blooms. This year there should be more than 150 plants to view. Expect to see more than 150 stellar mums on display, including chrysanthemums trained into bonsai shapes, like miniature trees.

The Chrysanthemum Show will take place Saturday, Oct. 25 from noon to 5 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 26 from noon to 3 p.m. at the Druid Hall, Grant and Reichert Streets in downtown Novato. Admission is free. For more information, call Irv Baker at 892-9650.

See you there!

Tomorrow they arrive!

My chrysanthemum seedlings are supposed to arrive tomorrow from King's Mums and I am ready for them. -Well, almost ready. A friend suggested that I plant them in peat pots and I haven't gotten to the nursery yet. Therefore, if tomorrow is the delivery date they will be planted in small red pots.

Princess Haiku listened to the ghostly music of "Kafka On The Shore"

A Poetic Excerpt from "Kafka on the Shore," by Haruki Murakami; a novel the New Yorker calls, "An insistently metaphysical mind-bender." A book that should be required reading for all living spirits.

"Oshima stays behind and helps me close up for the night.
"By any chance have you fallen in love with somebody?" he asks. "You seem kind of out of it."
I don't have any idea how I should respond. "Oshima," I finally say. "this is a pretty weird thing to ask, but do you think it's possible for someone to become a ghost while they're still alive?"
He stops straightening up the counter and looks at me. "A very interesting question, actually. Are you asking about the human spirit in a literary sense-metaphorically, in other words? Or do you mean in actual fact?"
"More in actual fact, I guess," I say.
"The assumption that ghosts literally exist?"
"Right."
Oshima removes his glasses, wipes them with his handkerchief, and puts them back on. "That's what's called a "living spirit.".....


Kafka on the Shore

You sit at the edge of the world,
I am in a crater that's no more.
Words without letters
Standing in the shadow of the door.

The moon shines down on a sleeping lizard.
Little fish rain down from the sky.
Outside the window there are soldiers,
steeling themselves to die.

(Refrain)

Kafka sits in a chair by the shore,
Thinking of the pendulum that moves the world, it seems.
When your heart is closed.
The shadow of the unmoving Sphinx,
Becomes a knife that pierces your dreams.

The drowning girl's fingers
Search for the entrance stone, and more.
Lifting the hem of her azure dress,
She gazes-
at Kafka on the shore.

More zap on Haruki Murakami here.

where is a poet when you need them most?

Judith Bishop
on Yves Bonnefoy

Une façon de dire, qui ferait
Qu’on ne serait plus seul dans le langage.

A way among the words, that would be
The end of our solitude in language.



White Rose Map, Princess Haiku


I am trying to find an antique map that is a direction
rather than a testament to the lostness of the human spirit.
Most directions it is said, swirl into radiating circles and
all at once alight into the air; a pale flock of white birds;
a winter of unspoken desire.

Moon, do you have such a map?

Princess Haiku Dreaming of the Sea

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I was in Berkeley, a few days ago and enjoyed a pristine walk along the Berkeley Marina. The beauty of this landscape always touches me in unique ways. The end of the film, "Kite Runner" was filmed here and on windy days it's the perfect place to fly a bright kite and set your spirit free.