lightning rips the sky
clouds part to reveal sunlight
mending the broken
This haiku is my response to RonovanWrites Weekly Haiku Prompt Challenge #257,
where the prompt words are rip and mend.
Image source: unsplash.com / Daniel Páscoa (edited here)
warm breeze in morning
even as spring flowers bloom
temperatures rise
This haiku is my response to Frank Tassone’s #Haikai Challenge #88: summer-like.
new leaves fully grown
welcome new life to their world
fawn taking first steps
This haiku is my response to Frank Tassone’s #Haikai Challenge #87: fawn.
Image source: ukiyo-e.org – Deer, by Inshō Domotō
photos on laptop
showing newlyweds posing
beneath oak’s new leaves
The prompt for Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation # 86 – Carpe Diem’s Utopia is to write a modern Utopian (excellent) haiku, while using classical rules. Those rules are listed below, to show how this haiku, while having a modern theme, is able to meet the rules for a classic haiku.
• Syllable count of 5-7-5
• Inspiration source – (short moment in time) – here, that pose, with its significance
• Season word(kigo) – here, it is “new leaves,” indicating spring
• Interchanging – the first and third lines interchangeable without losing the imagery of the haiku
even an old man
has New Year’s eyes…
cherry blossoms
Issa
seeing potential
in arrival of new year
even in old age
The prompt for Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #85 Photo-shopping haiku – cherry blossoms is to “photo-shop” or remake a haiku by Kobayashi Issa (above in blue), by making a minor edit. I had a hard time stopping at “minor.”
Image source: Minneapolis Institute of Arts – Old Man Who Made Blossoms Bloom, by Sonsai Kōitsu
The prompt for Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #84 Quest for a New Masterpiece … Movement (Undou) asks us to create a new haiku using movement (or undou), inspired by Bashō’s “frog pond” haiku (tr. Jane Reichhold, below in blue).
old pond
a frog jumps into
the sound of water
Bashō
willow on stream bank
long leaves trailing on water
knows little of thirst
Image: Niagara River Gorge at Whirlpool State Park, New York
The following five haiku/senryū were included in my submission to Pure Haiku for the most recent theme, Emergence. The fourth and fifth appeared at Pure Haiku on March 7th and April 16th. My thanks go to Freya Pickard for featuring these.
Emergence
true spirit revealed
a nature too long hidden
gender acceptance
chrysalis of green
parting as beauty unfolds
regal orange and black
long wait is over
nurtured in a mother’s warmth
a child’s eyes open
after long nights’ sleep
bear wakes in darkness of den
hungry for daylight
consideration
neurons fire, thoughts coalesce
realization
Image source: screenshot from this YouTube video
