My name is Jethro de Bellaigue, and I'm a poet. It isn't my job, but it's what I spend much of my life - and almost all of my free time - thinking about. I composed "Ascendant" recently, inspired (unsurprisingly!) by an experience during a transatlantic flight.

As the plane moved above the cloud line, I looked out over this incredible, otherworldly landscape, which I struggled to comprehend. This short poem was the best I could do putting what I saw into words. I hope you like it.

The haiku is taken from "The White Samurai" saga, which tells the extraordinary tale of William Adams, the Englishman who became one of the very few Western Samurai. I placed the haiku itself over a painting of a moonlight voyage in a Ro, a traditional Japanese single-oared boat; the calmness of the scene juxtaposing with the enormously difficult journey undertaken to reach Japan.

- Masaoka Shiki