Spring haiku

Spring cannot be far
hopeful daffodil spikes reach
for a warmer sun

Silver-crescented moon

Cool clear summer's eve
a silver-crescented moon
cirrus peach and rose

Haikus

Two haikus from members of my little group.

To love is my joy,

Mutely spake me the lily.

Our souls briefly touched.

(Errol)

and:

Soft smiled the iris

Gently in the cold of spring

My heart warmed with joy

(William)

Tu crois

Tu crois que la vie
est douce.  Mais ce n'est pas vrai.
Pleine de douleur, dure.

I loved him

I loved and lost. Yeah.
Perfect he was not but
 I loved him. Then. Always.

Summer night. A Haiku

I sit late at night
drinking, thinking of him who
has abandoned me

Image from Wolf and Wilde

The harsh bones of life

The harsh bones of life
Aging flesh and skin, friendless
Soul long departed

Winter Haiku

My elder son, who is studying for his post grad degree, is poor and lives in an unheated house.  (We're buying him a heater and warm clothing this coming weekend)  He sent us this haiku:

Grey skies, the student

Impoverished sleeps under

A blanket of books

The Grasshoppers' Cry

The grasshoppers' cry

Does not reveal how very

Soon they are to die

Basho (17th Century)

Linden tree leaves

Everything I touch.

Another of Issa's haikus.

Everything I touch

with tenderness, alas,

pricks like a bramble.

Love hurts.  Issa said it better, though.

Autumn Thoughts -- Kobayashi Issa

Squeezing in next
to my lover...
quilt-covered brazier

Kobayashi Issa (1793)

Sheer genius.  Sheer fucking genius.


It's autumn here in the southern hemisphere.   The pin-oaks (quercus palustris) are turning magenta and claret.  The golden ash (fraxinus excelsior) is well ... golden.  Yesterday morning we had the first serious frost.  The days are sunny, a touch smokey, the nights nippy.

Tempora mutantur, et nos in illis.  Or perhaps not.  After all, Kobayishi Issa saw the same things 200 years ago.

The cycles of life.

[Haiku and image from here]

Haiku conversation

My spring haiku:

Sacred ibises
Wings whispering slow grey silk
In a blue spring sky

My lady's haiku in response:

Cat rolls in spring sun
Dizzy abandon, dog more
Wary, winter aged.

and my daughter's:

Tiny animals
Unfurl themselves to the dawn
As the sun rises

Haiku -- Spring

Spring


Dismal spring downpour
Pewter streets glitter silver
Lavish daffodils

A Haiku

Winter mistiness
Thoughts about my loneliness
Daffodils bring hope

The Pheasant Cries

The pheasant cries
as if it just noticed
the mountain.

Kobayashi Issa
(Japanese, late 18th/early 19th century)