So what was it, haijin, tricks or treats this past halloween? Many of you savored the spirit of Samhain and All Hallow’s Eve!

Congratulations, last week’s contributors!

Haikai Challenge Participants 

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Moving Forward

November is upon us. The days in the northern hemisphere grow noticably shorter. Here in the lower Hudson Valley of New York, a late foliage ensues, with winds causing a showering of colored leaves to layer the ground. All of which pales in comparison to This Tuesday: Election Day (throughout the United States).

It’s tempting to go political at the mention of it. It’s oh, so enticing to note how many Senators and Congressional Representatives are up for election. It’s almost behind endurance to refrain from screaming from the rooftops how the majority party in control of the Federal Legislature can be replaced with the minority one–and what kind of sanity may then result.

But as alluring as such indulgence is, Election Day invites us all to contemplate the significance of Democracy itself:

Democracy (Greek: δημοκρατία dēmokratía, literally “rule by people”), in modern usage, has three senses—all for a system of government where the citizens exercise power by voting. In a direct democracy, the citizens as a whole form a governing body and vote directly on each issue. In a representative democracy the citizens elect representatives from among themselves. These representatives meet to form a governing body, such as a legislature. In a constitutional democracy the powers of the majority are exercised within the framework of a representative democracy, but the constitution limits the majority and protects the minority, usually through the enjoyment by all of certain individual rights, e.g. freedom of speech, or freedom of association.[1][2] “Rule of the majority” is sometimes referred to as democracy.[3] Democracy is a system of processing conflicts in which outcomes depend on what participants do, but no single force controls what occurs and its outcomes.

A functioning Democracy ensures that we the people choose who will lead us. A dysfunctional Democracy ensures that we the people choose who will tyrannize us. Left unchecked, such tyrants can end democracy. Clearly, the heart of Democracy is the right of a society’s citizens to vote. And every vote matters.

This week, write the haikai poem of your choice (haiku, senryu, haibun, tanka, haiga, renga, etc.) that alludes to our unconventional kigo, Election Day and/or Democracy.

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.

If you are a US citizen, make sure you register to vote! 

Let freedom ring, haijin! Let freedom ring!