Poetry on the Peaks

Mt. Fuji

Morning Prayers

I have missed the guardian spirit
of the Sangre de Cristos,
those mountains
against which I destroyed myself
every morning I was sick
with loving and fighting
in those small years.
In that season I looked up
to a blue conception of faith
a notion of the sacred in
the elegant border of cedar trees
becoming mountain and sky.

This is how we were born into the world:
Sky fell in love with earth, wore turquoise,
cantered in on a black horse.
Earth dressed herself fragrantly,
with regard for the aesthetics of holy romance.
Their love decorated the mountains with sunrise,
weaved valleys delicate with the edging of sunset.

This morning I look toward the east
and I am lonely for those mountains
though I've said good-bye to the girl
with her urgent prayers for redemption.
I used to believe in a vision
that would save the people
carry us all to the top of the mountain
during the flood
of human destruction.

I know nothing anymore
as I place my feet into the next world
except this:
the nothingness
is vast and stunning,
brims with details
of steaming, dark coffee
ashes of campfires
the bells on yaks or sheep
sirens careening through a deluge
of humans
or the dead carried through fire,
through the mist of baking sweet
bread and breathing.

This is how we will leave this world:
on horses of sunrise and sunset
from the shadow of the mountains
who witnessed every battle
every small struggle.

Joy Harjo
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Mount Fuji is the archetype of the stratovolcano and probably rivals Vesuvius for the best-know volcano. The volcano rises 3,776 meters above the surrounding plain. About 25 million years ago, Komitake, the archetype of Mt.Fuji, was created by plate movement. Kofuji volcano was then created. About 10,000 years ago, Mt.Fuji's current shape was formed by the deposit of lava and volcanic ashes by continuous eruptions. Fuji has erupted at least 16 times since 781 AD. Most of these eruptions were moderate to moderate-large in size. The most recent eruption was in 1707-1708 from a vent on the southeast side of the cone. The eruption ejected 0.8 cubic km of ash, blocks, and bombs. Five historic eruptions have caused damage, including the 1707-1708 eruption, but no fatalities. Fuji had two large eruption (VEI=5) in 1050 and 930 BC.

Reading on Mt. Fuji: July 30, 2002. The reading was organized by Masako Takahashi with Suien magazine. Reading in Matsuyama City: July 29, 2002 at ‘Wakusei (Planet)’. Address: Yamagoe 4-6-7, Matsuyama.

"I report The Reading on the Peak of Mt. Fuji. We had the Reading on the Peak of Mt. Fuji on July 30, 2002 with six members of Suien. Include are photos by Masako Takahashi. I read "She had a horse " by Joy Harjo and a haiku poem by Basho, which was selected by Masako Takahahashi.

After praying to the rising sun at 4:45 am. on July 30 on the peak of Fuji, every member of six read his or her haiku poems in the morning sunlight, sitting on the rocks and blown by the strong wind, though the strong wind blew away our voice of reading into the air of 3776m height. The day on the peak of Fuji was very sunny to be seen afar all around the mountain, and strong wind blew, the temperature was 5? or so. First we started to climb from the fifth station of Mt. Fuji in the morning on July 29, and stayed in the hut at the eighth station during the night. And again at 2 am. midnight (in order to meet the now- rising glorious sun at 4:45) we started to climb to the summit under the starlit sky stepping steep rocks of lava step by step. At last we all could climbed and read poems. Very enjoyable and memorable experience! Thank you for the great project." -- Masako Takahashi

Nobuyuki Takahashi is a haiku poet, president of the haiku magazine--Suien, and Professor Emeritus at Ehime University. He has been published in several haiku anthologies including SUIEN and SHOSHITAI (The Vetorious Body) and written An Introduction of Comparative Haiku, Reality in Haiku, Das Haiku heute und seine Kriterien. His haiku has been translated to German, English, Chinese, and other languages. Professor Nobuyuki Takahashi will climb Mt. Fuji. Masako Takahashi is a haiku poet and editor of the haiku magazine--SUIEN. She has been in several anthologies including TSUKI NO KASHI (An oak in the moonlight) and GENDAI HAIKU SEIEI SENSHU (Highly selected modern haiku). Masako Takahashi will climb Mt. Fuji. Yuka Tada is a haiku poet, a district nurse, and an enthusiatic mountain climber for over ten years and has climbed many mountains including Mt. Rainer in Seattle. Yuka Tada will climb Mt. Fuji for the Poetry on the Peaks. Masato Hino is a haiku poet and will photograph the reading on Mt. Fuji. The editors of Suien magazine organized the reading.

Joy Harjo was born born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and studied at the University of New Mexico and received an MFA from the University of Iowa. Her rich multicultural lineage--Harjo's mother was part Cherokee, French, and Irish; her father was Creek--figures in her poetry, which explores the relationship between past and present, humans in their communities, and the many aspects of the self. A saxophonist with the jazz band Poetic Justice, whose latest CD is entitled Letter from the End of the 21st Century, her books include She Had Some Horses (1983), In Mad Love and War (1990), The Woman Who Fell from the Sky (1996), and, released early this year, A Map to the Next World: Poems and Tales. Harjo received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writer's Circle of the Americas and lives in Honolulu, Hawaii.