#TankaTuesday, haiku, #ShareYourDay

Posted on by Colleen M. Chesebro

For #TankaTuesday, it’s #Share Your Day. My neighbor’s sunflowers caught my attention, but before I could grab a photo, they’d cut them down. The tall stalks wilted against the heat of the Michigan summer.

I chose the kigo season word: sunflower (himawari, late summer).

This is a flower that blooms where I live in Michigan in the late summer. Depending on where you live, you most likely have different flowers that bloom in late summer. Just the mention of the name reminds you of the season. Chrysanthemums is another fall blooming flower. There are several.

Where I used to live in Arizona, it was a scorching desert! Yet, the cactus bloomed in spring. So, cactus blooms/flowers/buds, etc. set the season in haiku. Look for ways to describe the seasons where you live.

In my haiku, the sunflower stands for the season of late summer.

The Japanese season words (kigo) are a guide. The key here is the word season. Season words are a poetic device. Plus, seasonal words give us unexpected glimpses into how we view the world around us. That is why we write haiku. Season words are essential for clarity and concision in haiku. You should adapt season words that share your view of the world. Different seasons illustrate different kinds of energy. Use that to your advantage. It’s the a’ha moment that makes your haiku sing. Haiku should share a singular experience or event. Write haiku that brings your world alive for us! (paraphrased from Haiku: A Poet’s Guide, by Lee Gurga)

Photo by Stanislav Kondratiev on Pexels.com
dewy sunflower
ripe seeds scatter in the wind
squirrel's morning feast

© Colleen M. Chesebro

You can adapt the following list of season words to where you live. Think of the seasons where you live… make your own list. 🌻

500-Essential-Japanese-Season-WordsDownload

Thanks for sharing the last day of August with me.

38 thoughts on “#TankaTuesday, haiku, #ShareYourDay”

  5. I’ve got just a few sunflowers that I planted by seed. A small variety. Not sure if I’ll get any seeds… but I’ll share them with my birdies.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Now that it is getting just a tad cooler – I might be able to do some yard work. The heat and bugs have kept me from it. But I do enjoy my neighbors gardens too.

        I actually have a few tomatoes and green peppers left… if they ripen and (the peppers) get just a tad bigger 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

  9. Pingback: #TankaTuesday #Poetry Stars No. 287 |#ShareYourDay – Word Craft Poetry

    1. David, I’ve seen the seasonal reference used in the beginning and the end—anywhere in a haiku. Sometimes the seasonal reference is the aha moment.

      Gurga suggests in his book, “Haiku: A Poet’s Guide,” that “…seasonality is the poetic device—a cultural shorthand—that allows the Japanese haiku poet to capture the whole world in a grain of sand.”

      He also says the season is not the subject of the poem. He talks about how the season and the moment (you’re writing about in the haiku) are tied together by the great cycle of the seasons. This haiku by Randy Brooks explains it best:

      funeral procession…
      snowflakes blowing
      into the headlights

      The season word—snowflakes give you the feeling of death (as in the winter everything is dead). It’s an excellent observation and leaves you with the feeling of aloneness, a sort of finality to the situation.

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