By Daniel Pettersson [CC BY-SA 2.5 se (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/se/deed.en) or CC BY-SA 2.5 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
Have you eaten enough crow, haijin? 🙂
We had another impressive showing this past week! I get the feeling many of you like birds! LOL!
Behold, your haikai:
Haikai Challenge Participants
| 1. Ken Gierke / rivrvlogr 2. Jules 3. qbit 4. KanzenToni 5. Victoria Slotto 6. Jane Dougherty 7. Jules |
8. Vivian Zems 9. Zander 10. Charley (Life in Portofino) 11. Merril D. Smith 12. Reena Saxena 13. Janice (Ontheland) 14. Elsie Hagley |
15. Jane Dougherty 16. Sue Vincent 17. Linda Lee Lyberg 18. Revived Writer 19. Xenia Tran 20. Petru J Viljoen 21. Kerfe Roig |
Powered by… Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.
Onward!
February has begun. According to “The Five Hundred Essential Japanese Season Words“:
In traditional temperate zone four-season calendars East and West, the equinoxes and solstices are the mid-points of the seasons. Thus, roughly,
Early Spring = Feb or Aug
Mid Spring = Mar or Sep
Late Spring = Apr or Oct.(In each case, the first month is northern hemisphere, the second southern.) For more on the traditional orientation of the seasons, see The Traditional Seasons of Japanese Poetry.
Keeping with tradition, this week’s kigo is the skylark (hibari).
Inhabiting Europe, Asia and Australia, Skylarks are known for their melodious singing. They also sing in flight. And they have a rich history in literature.
From Wikipedia:
Symbolism[edit]
The lark in mythology and literature stands for daybreak, as in Chaucer’s “The Knight’s Tale“, “the bisy larke, messager of day” (I.1487; Benson 1988), and Shakespeare’sSonnet 29, “the lark at break of day arising / From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate” (11–12). The lark is also (often simultaneously) associated with “lovers and lovers’ observance” (as in Bernart de Ventadorn‘s Can vei la lauzeta mover) and with “church services” (Sylvester and Roberts 2000), and often those the meanings of daybreak and religious reference are combined (in Blake’sVisions of the Daughters of Albion, into a “spiritual daybreak” (Baine and Baine 1986)) to signify “passage from Earth to Heaven and from Heaven to Earth” (Stevens 2001). In Renaissance painters such as Domenico Ghirlandaio the lark symbolizes Christ, in reference to John 16:16 (Cadogan 2000).
This week, write a haikai poem of your choice in which you name or allude to the skylark!
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.
Enjoy! And should you have the opportunity to listen, may the skylark’s song uplift you!
Frank J. Tassone 
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