Today’s #HaikuSeed is sparrow
Over the years sparrows inspired me to write a few haiku which I’m quite happy about and proud of. Sparrows are aplenty in our neighborhood and they are there in our backyard with their live commentary every morning as the sun shyly awakes. Even now, as I write this post, there are sparrows calling to each other, some darting this way and that between our house and the next. Such lively little creatures.
clothesline
wobbles
— a sparrow loses balance
The incident that prompted me to write this haiku is just that – I was looking out into my backyard and there was this little sparrow standing on the clothesline. It was a cold morning and the feathers of the little one looked ruffled, but it was actively chirping, looking this way and that. Suddenly, without an external factor, it lost balance, the clothesline swung violently and the sparrow took off in confusion. It was a funny moment.
every morning
a sparrow concerto —
i pay with oats for a replay
My mother and sister have been feeding the neighborhood sparrows for nearly a decade now. Sometimes I take up the task to put out the birdseed, oats or barley. I quite like hearing a bunch of sparrows. I imagine what they communicate so excitedly.
sparrow eyes a dried stalk
among swaying green grass —
house repairs after storm
I wrote the above haiku more than a year ago after a heavy rain that brought the city life to a standstill for a few days. Our own 2-story home had problems with plumbing as there was too much rainwater, the neighborhood’s sewage system hit some ugly snags. Around the year, between our house and our relative’s house next to our own, there is always a sparrow nest or two. We couldn’t see them but know they are there because we can hear them being noisy. So on this particular day, my mind drew towards what the storm must do these little birds, here next to our home or out there in the wild.
early morning, sparrow talk
and the string instrument
of a travelling minstrel
I wrote this one yesterday when again, in the morning, I was browsing twitter and I heard a string instrument being played on the street and once my ears were noticing stuff again, I could also hear the ever present sparrows in our backyard too. And yes, there are travelling minstrels here in India even now. I do not know the appropriate word for them in our regional languages unfortunately.
— Sankara Jayanth Sudanagunta
Founding Editor
@coffeeandhaiku