Haiku

Avian Buffet ~ haiku sequence ~ quadrille

/ Ken Gierke / rivrvlogr / 14 Comments

Avian Buffet

fresh bounty
for tufted titmouse
squirrels watch

chickadee
pecks sunflower seed
on white branch

cardinal
in a flash of red
on the wing

hungry birds
where no snow gathers
in snowfall

 

This haiku sequence using a 3-5-3 form is my response to Quadrille #164: Winging It, the prompt from De Jackson (whimsigizmo) at dVerse ~ Poets Pub, which is to use a form of the word wing in a 44-word poem (excluding title), with no required meter or rhyme.

orange leaves ~ haiku & kimo

/ Ken Gierke / rivrvlogr / 8 Comments

orange leaves
fall on bluff top trail
river view

maple leaves of brilliant orange and yellow
reflect the afternoon sun
in a final farewell

Haiku, a Japanese form, have three lines with a syllable count of 3/5/3, 5/7/5, or short/long/short. A kigo, or seasonal reference, is integral, and there is often a kireji, or “cutting word” at the end of the first or second line to indicate two thoughts half-independent of each other.

There are distinct differences in kimo, an Israeli variant of haiku originally structured to meet the need for more syllables in Hebrew. Like haiku, there is no rhyme, but kimo have a syllable count of 10/7/6, and deal with a single moment in which there is no movement. While my poem is a moment in nature, kimo have no seasonal or natural requirement. Find discussions here and here.

This is my response to Colleen’s #TankaTuesday Weekly Poetry Challenge No. 296, #Tastetherainbow.