John
Daleiden
These
'blooming" Haku!
Spring blossoms indeed!
22 haiku poets from 6 countries submitted 87 haiku to this very
popular haiku thread. The countries included: Australia,
Canada, India, Poland, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United
states. The poets were as prolific as the season. A
bouquet of roses to each of you.
After the coldness of
winter we are always eager to discover the first signs
that Spring will soon relieve us from the cold and snow
last spring snow:
daffodil buds
probe the garden
# 56. Marilyn Hazelton, US
In this haiku the
juxtaposition of the snow and "probing" daffodil buds
provides an exciting moment of expectation—can
the the tulips, crocus, hyacinth and other blossoms be far
behind?
hyacinths transform
grey with blue and green—
a Brahms concerto
# 05. Phyllis Jean Green, US
After the unrelenting gray
winter colors the world is soon transformed. The hyacinths
emerge and in this haiku the writer suggests not only
their fragrance but offers the reader a world of lush
sounds in her juxtaposition of the hyacinth with the rich
sonority and tones of a "Brahms" concerto. The lyrical
element of Spring sounds heightens our sense of hearing.
Another certain sign of
Spring is the fall of rain instead of snow:
rain again
puddle full of clouds
and plum petals
# 27. Jacek Margolak, PL
One of the ironies here is
that the nurturing rain also becomes the agent for causing
the beauty of the plum blossoms to end; but never fear,
with so many blossoms, there will certainly be an abundant
fruit crop of plums. Nature is in a constant array of
change.
Similarly:
against the wind—
on my dress
cherry petals
# 03. Katarzyna Predota, PL
I can hardly wait for cherry
harvest time in the orchard! Once again, irony is used
to suggest / imply that the abundance of blossoms will ensure
a full harvest. The haiku demonstrates both the frailty
of Spring and a fecund production of fruitfulness—quite
a nice use of irony.
cherry blossoms
the starlings' nest box
still empty
# 57. Iga Gala Miemus, PL
In contrast this haiku boldly
paints the expectation of life among the aviary species. This
haiku speaks volumes about the nature of Spring. Just as
blossoms of all variety of plant life are an indicator of the
growing season, so too, are the waiting "nest boxes" of birds,
who typically lay eggs and hatch their broods during the
warming Spring weather. The "still empty" nest boxes conjure
up all manner of images—the
chirping of hungry chicks, the constant flight of the parent
birds to feed their young—and
you are free to add your own images here also. The denotation
of "empty" masterfully offers the reader an array of
expectation.
Just as the natural world
awakens form a long winter sleep in Spring, so too,
children join in the celebration of the new season; observe
these children in action:
spring blossoms—
chalk drawings
on cracked sidewalks
# 06. Karen O'Leary, US
Amid the "spring blossoms"
these children have made "chalk drawings" on the sidewalks.
The drawings of the children are just as temporary and fragile
as the blossoms—for
they will soon vanish with time as the elements of nature work
on them. Interestingly, the canvas for the drawings is the
"cracked sidewalks"—and
how did these sidewalks become cracked? Why of course—that
is the natural work of thawing and freezing. The use of
effective image contrasts in this haiku evokes images of
constant season change.
morning kisses
the orchid in the kitchen
finally bloomed
# 48. Robin Beshers, US
Man is not content to limit the
blossoming world to the outdoors; many people bring plants
into the indoors so they may enjoy the growing earth all year
around. In this case an exotic tropical plant, the orchid, has
been nurtured in a kitchen environment and it has "finally
bloomed". The owner is so overjoyed she is moved to offer
"morning kisses" in appreciation. This haiku proclaims an
image of eulogy to the skill of the green thumb gardener who
is able to produce blossoms in otherwise hostile environments—provide
the ideal conditions and wait. Patience is truly a virtue and
this haiku demonstrates the truth of that aphorism.
Regardless of where we look
during the Spring season, we are offered a constant field of
blooming and change—a
welcome respite to the drudgery of the winter season.
morning brightness
magnolia petals
begin their fall
# 01 Bill Kenney, US
Month of March
a bit of yellow poui
before full moon
# 21. Gillena Cox, TT
Cherry Point
a strong easterly blows
petals to the starfish
# 33. Garry Eaton, CA
bus stop bench
sunlight bristles
the maple’s blossoms
# 10. Martin Gottlieb Cohen, US
The endless profusion is aptly
described by this simple haku:
in her garden
suddenly
blossom blossom blossom
# 07. Ed Baker, US
Not only is the eye delighted
with an unending variety of blossoms, but other senses are
also stimulated.
the fragrance
of lime blossoms:
my evening tea
# 13. Keith A. Simmonds, TT
Here, both the sense of smell
and taste are stimulated by the abundance of the season.
The pastoral senses of our
environment can be awakened when we see the vast and healing
quality of an entire landscape rife with growth and color:
morning glories
twine the sagging fence
blue-sky afternoon
# 80. Catherine J. S. Lee, US
Here, the simple picture of
"morning glories / twining on a sagging fence" against a "blue
afternoon sky", paints a quiet landscape with healing
qualities. That "sagging fence", somehow does not seem to
"sag" so much because it is encircled with enticing flowers.
Some images of blossoms can
also command us to consider some distasteful ideas: Consider
this field of sunflowers:
field of sunflowers
ten thousand Cyclops
stand at attention
# 47. Susan Weaver, US
This innocent depiction of a
sunflower field suggests a dark realm. The Cyclops was a Roman
and Greek mythical race of primordial giants who lived upon an
island. They were giants with a single eye in the middle of
their forehead (like the sunflower)—they
had a foul disposition. According to Hesiod they were strong,
stubborn, and "abrupt of emotion". Collectively they
eventually became synonyms for brute strength and power.
Isolated by Uranus who feared their strength, they were
eventually freed by Zeus for whom they fashioned thunderbolts
to use as weapons. Zeus used these weapons to overthrow Cronus
and the other Titans. In this haiku the Sunflowers are
compared to the Cyclops and the images of unusual appearance
and brute strength denote oddities in the natural world. Here
we have images that suggest a wide array of social
relationships—conflict
and contribution. The use of classical images in a haiku can
be quite effective.
The blossoms can also remind us
of other unpleasant aspects of life:
disappearing
a python’s slinky tail
through wisteria
# 41. Barbara A. Taylor, AU
The sight of any snake is
enough to send some people into hysterical screaming. If my
wife had observed this scene should would have shrieked so
loudly that the dead would have been awakened in the next
county—and she
grew up in a tropical Caribbean environment! This haiku evokes
conflicting reactions to an otherwise beautiful environment.
It is somewhat like a senryu because it may invoke a humorous
portrayal of human reactions—a
negative reaction to any snake, even one which is feeing.
Additionally, the same
nurturing factors that contribute to the the proliferation of
flowers, may also contribute to a similar growth in other
animals less appreciated
flower blossoms
larger at the garbage dump
a rat disappears
# 50. Karina Klesko, US
Blossoms can
also make us think about the fragility of all life:
forget-me-nots—
how beautifully they bloom
on your grave
# 54. Andrzej Dembończyk, PL
Likewise, the abundance of
flowers might make us think of a distasteful human
obligation in most societies:
forsythia, forsythia—
income tax
forsythia
# 58. Marilyn Hazelton, US
This haiku offers a subtle
comments on "income tax"; this is a very effective senryu.
The negative impact of
humans on the world environment is suggested in these two
haiku:
Global Warming—
northern cherry blossoms
open early this year
# 81. Aju Mukhopadhyay, IN
industrial zone—
dandelion fluff floating
in grey skies
# 69. Krzysztof Kokot, PL
Finally, as I read all 87
haiku over and over during the submission period—as
I attempted to select some noteworthy haiku for comments,
I came to regard all of the blossom haiku with a Salvador
Dalí kind of deliberate distortion of perspective.
Earth Day—
an electronic garden
where the bytes bloom
# 84. John Daleiden, US
The haiku commented on
above and the other haiku in the thread show what the
skilled haiku writer can achieve with a generally simple
vocabulary and the skillful use of haiku writing
techniques such as juxtaposition, irony, comparison,
and contrast.
Read the entire "blooms" haiku thread.
John Daleiden
