A long overdue congratulations to the contributors of most recent #Haikai Challenge:
Haikai Challenge Participants| 1. Eugenia 2. Li/Lisa Fox of W MI, USA 3. Roger 4. Peter 5. Janice 6. s.s. 7. Jules | 8. Christine Bolton, Poetry for Healing 9. Xenia Tran 10. Myforever.blog 11. Pat R 12. Goutam Dutta 13. Jane Dougherty 14. Tina Stewart Brakebill | 15. willowdot21 16. Colleen Chesebro 17. Revived Writer 18. Tessa Dean 19. Linda Lee Lyberg 20. Kerfe Roig |
Powered by… Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.
As many of you know, it’s been a while. I’m working my way through one of the longest periods of writer’s block that I’ve ever experienced. I’ve walked across a desert, the mysterious amalgam of remote-learning “zoom fatigue,” effort helping my son complete his Eagle Scout service project, and I-don’t-know-what. As a result, I’ve not written consistently since mid-October.
This week, however, I hear the softest whispering. I feel the beginnings of the urge to write again. Most importantly, I miss offering you the challenge.
Therefore, today, I offer something novel. Unprecedented. Perhaps, over the top. You decide.
I offer a sequence of prompts for which you may write the #haikai poem of your choice. They are dated and numbered as they would have been had I written them on-schedule. As you have come to expect, they utilize kigo–traditional or otherwise–appropriate to their date. Without further prelude, the Haikai Challenge collection:
| Number | Date | Kigo |
| 161 | October 17th | scarecrow (kakashi) |
| 162 | October 24th | sea bass (suzuki) |
| 163 | October 31st | Halloween/Samhain/Blue Hunter’s Moon (nochi no tsuki) |
| 164 | November 7th | Veterans Day |
| 165 | November 14th | Indian Summer (Koharu) |
| 166 | November 21st | Thanksgiving |
| 167 | November 28th | Beaver Moon |
| 168 | December 5th | withering wind (kogarashi) |
| 169 | December 12th | Hanukkah |
| 170 | December 19th | Solstice II/Christmas |
There you have it: Ten weeks of #Haikai kigo in one post! Many speak for themselves. Others may appear more obscure. They are now yours.
Write the haikai poem of your choice (haiku, senryu, haibun, tanka, haiga, renga, etc.) that states, or alludes to, any of the Kigo cited above. Please reference which Kigo/Date to which you write your haikai.
As always:
Hereโs 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 contributorsโ posts.
Good Hunting, haijin! Have a (belated) Happy Hanukkah and Solstice (winter or summer), and a very Merry Christmas and Yultetide to you all!
Frank J. Tassone 
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