How was your moon-gazing, haijin? Many of you may have enjoyed it! Congratulations to last week’s contributors!

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Ultreya!

Tropical Storm Isaias struck my neck of the woods last Tuesday:

Hurricane Isaias (/ˌiːsɑːˈiːɑːs/)^[1] was a strong tropical cyclone which impacted portions of the Eastern Caribbean and caused significant damage in the Eastern United States, causing a tornado outbreak featuring the strongest tropical cyclone-spawned tornado since 2005. The ninth named storm and second hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, Isaias originated from a vigorous tropical wave off the coast of Africa that was first identified by the National Hurricane Center on July 23. The tropical wave gradually became more organized, and obtained gale-force winds on July 28, before organizing into Tropical Storm Isaias on July 30. Isaias marked the earliest ninth named storm on record, surpassing 2005’s Hurricane Irene by eight days. Isaias strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane the next day, reaching a peak intensity of 85 mph (140 km/h) and a pressure of 987 mbar (hPa; 29.15 inHg). On August 1, the storm made landfall on North Andros, Bahamas and subsequently weakened to a tropical storm before paralleling the east coast of Florida and Georgia. As it approached the Carolina coastline, it reintensified back into a hurricane shortly before making landfall near Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, at 11:10 PM EDT on August 3 as a Category 1 hurricane, and proceeded to accelerate up the East Coast of the United States as a strong tropical storm before transitioning into an extratropical cyclone (and later dissipating) in Quebec.

Swirling winds and torrential rainfall assaulted my “bucolic” neighborhood. Branches cracked, trees fell. Soon, the inevitable followed: a blackout.

My block remained without power until 3:31 AM Saturday morning! I bought six bags of ice to fill four coolers, all in an effort to preserve our food. Mira delivered meat to a friend’s home that maintained electricity. We kept our phones charged as best as we could, using a portable backup battery and car chargers. (Perhaps you noticed my posting schedule was a little scattered last week? That’s why!) Otherwise, we lived an 18th century lifestyle: reading by natural light during the day, enjoyine evenings by torchlight.

A task not made easy by generators droning at the three homes closest to us.

As Isaias struck in August, the first Autumn month of the traditional calendar, what better kigo could there be than first (autumn) storm (hatsu arashi)? As the storm caused blackouts that still plague other parts of the New York Metropolitan area, what better kigo can there be than darkness (Yami)? Therefore, haijin, you have a choice this week.

Write the haikai poem of your choice (haiku, senryu, haibun, tanka, haiga, renga, etc.) that alludes to either the first (autumn) storm (hatsu arashi), Darkness (Yami), or both!

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.

Light a candle, rather than curse the darkness, haijin. And when the storms of life erupt, keep calm and carry on!