The Colors of Spring, haiku sequence #TankaTuesday

Posted on by Colleen M. Chesebro

the smell of spring…
green grasses
undulate and wave

daffodil—
alone in a field
mellow yellow

thin mist
gray clouds mirror
reflections

green leaf buds
drawing down the moon
at twilight

forsythia
yellow petals fall
in the mud

pear blossoms—
the goddess’ white tears
spring hoarfrost

For #TankaTuesday, I wrote a series of haiku. This week we were to use color in our poetry. Each kigo is italicized. We need the season word to define the haiku. Writing haiku is about showing two images that somehow connect in a new way. It should give you a mental tickle or the infamous “aha” moment when you read haiku.

The best way to connect with the two images is to split them up. This is also how you can check and see if your haiku makes sense. Take the last haiku in my series:

pear blossoms—
the goddess' white tears
spring hoarfrost
pear blossoms—
the goddess' white tears

The first image is of pear blossoms that look like the white tears of the goddess (Gaia, or mother nature, or ?)

the goddess' white tears
spring hoarfrost

The last image shows the goddess’ white tears compared to spring hoarfrost.

They say, when crafting a haiku show, don’t tell. Let the reader draw their own conclusions. 💜

69 thoughts on “The Colors of Spring, haiku sequence #TankaTuesday”

  2. I think that each haiku is unique, in and of itself;
    and, clearly connected to the others in the series.

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  4. I do think we can all use more spring poetry. There is so much ‘springing’ how could one miss such opportunities? 💗

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      1. We have had more rain overnight… think positive – easier to pull out the weeds when the ground is wet 😉

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              1. I shoved hubby out the door to play golf today, because there is supposed to be rain this weekend!

                He restrung my clothes line, so I was able to get my laundry on the outside line today. 🙂

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                8. It is possible that the rain finally stopped?
                  The trees are swaying just a tad. Might still need a jacket today! 💚

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                9. We went to our local nursery yesterday and I bought a weeping cherry tree for my backyard. It will be my poet-tree! I got four peony bushes for the front yard along with some more hostas. I’ll add a few heuchera (coral bells) to the mix at a later date. ❤

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                10. I had a small weeping cherry until lightning struck another tree of which a piece knocked down the cherry… But I’ve enough trees at the moment 😀

                  I had peony in NJ – they need ants to bloom. That much I remember.

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  9. Lovely, Colleen. I like the photos and poems together. I think the first haiku is my favorite because it brings in both scent and motion.

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  18. Pingback: Word Craft Poetry#TankaTuesday #Poetry Stars No. 272 | #TastetheRainbow: Color Poetry

  19. I love how each one of these is a little snapshot, Colleen, and – I didn’t realize that our poems could include more than one color for the purpose of this prompt!

    ❤
    David

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