both weary
taking lodging at the same time
wisteria flowers
– Matsuo Bashล
Translation by Jane Reichhold
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The #HaikuSeed prompt last week was fog with an additional photo prompt
This week there will be no commentary, sorry! Too busy with work and all. I loved how the haiku captured beautiful moments in nature and brought focus to certain aspects of how fog exists, moves and interacts. Some wonderful senryu again. Perhaps I will add short commentary to a few featured haiku on Twitter over the week as I find time. Hope you enjoy last week’s blossoms.
sunrise
the fog coalesces
into a purple heronAlaka Y
lost
in the fog
but for my footstepsC. X. Turner
rolling fog . . .
shadows deepen
in slow motionDon Baird
driving slowly
with windows down
pea-soup fogJoseph P. Wechselberger
foggy morning
the shuffling gait
of grandpaLorelyn Arevalo
fog map–
the shifting path
of a storyPippa Phillips
Diwali weekโ
motherโs old silks
drape the dining tableRupa Anand
winterโs sun
reluctantly rising
with a sigh่ซ้ณ (Kaon)
opaque fog –
near becomes
farValentina Ranaldi-Adams
creeping fog
across the battlefield
buried memoryBA France
morning fog
the eerie stillness
of dew pointEavonka Ettinger
harsh winters
now and then
a road loses its wayMeraki
autumn dawn
a heron fishes
the fogKerry J Heckman
harbor fog
i stumble
through goodbyeLuna
midnight fogโฆ
the shadows
of skeletal treesNancy Brady
shrieking chimps
echo across the jungle
fog of warmorning dew . . .
fog of starlings
rolling in and outpetro c. k.
I see my breath
morning’s also
floating over the pondSkyeku
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Footnotes
I’ve started this journal with an idea to see amateur haiku poets like me write more nature-themed haiku, having seen all sorts of topics being written in haiku form by aspiring writers on Twitter and other places on the internet. I’ve been there, I’ve done that. But I’ve grown into a classicist when it comes to haiku as I really looked at what most of the haiku written by masters like Basho, Issa, Buson do. So I’m not too quick to warm up to contemporary haiku. It is an undeniable fact that the haiku form in English has been evolving for decades now and it will continue to. So while I keep this journal to inspire and feature nature-themed haiku, I will occasionally break from it because I see some expertly written haiku that I cannot help but appreciate what the writer has achieved and it makes me rethink the kind of haiku I want to feature here.
HSJ readers and contributors, if you like these feature posts with commentary, we would consider it a great encouragement and would love it if you shared it with others on the social profiles. On Twitter you can tag us at @HaikuSeed_, we are looking to gain audience of both writers and readers as we aim to grow.
Thank you for writing haiku for our prompts and reading the journal. We hope our journal inspires you. Keep writing!
โ Sankara Jayanth Sudanagunta
Founding Editor
@coffeeandhaiku๐ ๐ฟ ๐ ๐ ๐
Copyrights Disclaimer:
- All featured works are copyrighted to the respective writers. We would love it if you cite being our journal if your work is going to be published elsewhere, no obligations though.
- Photos used in our journal are taken by and copyrighted to Sankara Jayanth Sudanagunta unless stated otherwise.
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the trout too
hit their peak young…
Yoshino River– Kobayashi Issa
Translation by David G. Lanoue
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tofu pulp
without a mother in the house
so dreary– Matsuo Bashล
Translation by Jane Reichhold
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what are you eating
to make such a noise!
cuckoo– Kobayashi Issa
Translation by David G. Lanoue
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perhaps iโll be one
of those happy people
old at the yearโs end– Matsuo Bashล
Translation by Jane Reichhold
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The #HaikuSeed prompt last week was candle with an additional photo prompt
A lot of senryu or senryu-like submissions for this prompt. Usually, if the verse centers around concrete elements of nature while having a light human presence in some form, the line between haiku and senryu becomes blurred. And if the verse includes no nature and on top of that includes deep thoughts or expressions that are abstract and are hard to perceive as concrete images, I see them being strongly senryu than haiku even if there are elements of nature in it. Not surprising given the prompt. Few of the common scenes, words & aspects in the haiku submitted this week include flickering candle, wind-flame & love-candle juxtapositions. I would have liked to see more nature-themed haiku for this prompt (and for all #HaikuSeed prompts, after all, this is intended to be a nature-themed journal). But the senryu that were written contain some exquisite craft and depth, so I’m not one to squander the chance to showcase how haikai poets’ minds and spirits work wonders with just a few words irrespective of what label of Japanese poetry it falls under.
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knowing no parent
the fly clings piggy-back
to me– Kobayashi Issa
Translation by David G. Lanoue
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