haikai

#Haikai Challenge #18 (1/27/18): Raven #haiku #senryu #haibun #tanka #renga #haiga

raven
unsplash-logoTyler Quiring

 

You soared to new heights with last week’s kigo! We had a record number of submissions to the hawk #haikai challenge! A special shout-out to Jane Dougherty for her record-high seven hawk haiku in a single week! 🙂

 

Here are your haikai:

 

Haikai Challenge Participants

1. Jane Dougherty
2. Reena Saxena
3. Ken Gierke / rivrvlogr
4. ToniKanzen
5. Linda Lee Lyberg
6. Petru J Viljoen
7. Pat R
8. Elsie Hagley
9. Zander
10. Suzanne
11. Janice (Ontheland)
12. Merril D. Smith
13. Jane Dougherty
14. Vivian Zems
15. Jules
16. Xenia Tran
17. Revived Writer
18. Victoria Slotto
19. Jane Dougherty
20. Jane Dougherty
21. Jane Dougherty
22. qbit

Powered by… Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.

 

Now for this week’s challenge!

We’re staying traditional! And as January slowly yields to February, traditional winter (by the lunar calendar as used in Eastern Asis, including Japan) will soon end. Those of us Northerners bound to the Gregorian can only hope so. Here in New York, winter bucks from spring-like days to ice age reenactments–sometimes within a day! Nevertheless, tradition dictates a late-winter kigo.

kangarasu translates as “cold crow,” according to this informative database. But it can also be used for ravens. A trickster in Eastern Woodland Native American traditions, the mysterious counselor(s) of Oden in Norse mythology, and the bearer(s) of Spirital graces to the prophet Elijah in the Jewish scriptures and to St. Benedict in Catholic medeval tradition, the Raven has captured human imagination throughout time and across culture. It is also a symbol of war and, cousin to the crow, of death–at least in certain western European traditions, like my ancestral Irish. Not to mention Poe’s obsession with one!

Therefore, without further introduction, your Kigo this week is the raven! Directly state or refer to the raven in a haiku, senryu, haibun, tanka, renga, haiga or any other haikai (Japanese-style) poem of your choice.

 

As always:

 

Here’s how the challenge works:

1. write the haikai poem of your choice.
2. post the link of your post to Mister Linky.
3. pingback by posting the link to the challenge on your site.
4. read and comment on other contributors’ posts.

 

 

 

 

Stay warm, haijin! And fair flying!

 

 

35 replies »

  1. The raven and the crow are a fascination for me, Frank – really enjoy your kigo choice. They are smart birds, cunning birds, communal birds, and communicative. I wrote about that last one. I may be back for a second helping. Stay warm this week.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Your challenge brought back a memory, Frank. I think we mainly have crows here, but I think they are both fascinating birds. Did you know the Free Library of Philadelphia has Charles Dickens’s raven (now stuffed)?

    Liked by 1 person

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