The challenge this week is a broad one. You can write a sept, haiku, or tanka, and I want you to include the name of a season. Any season—all four if you’d like to write a sequence. Try to keep to the traditional forms i.e.
Sept: seven lines of 1-2-3-4-3-2-1 syllables
Haiku: three lines of 5-7-5 syllables
Tanka: five lines of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables.
Don’t worry about the hinge word thingy for the haiku—I don’t understand it either.
Not too difficult? I won’t include a picture this week because the theme is too broad, but feel free to add your own illustrations.
Here are my poems, a haiku, tanka, and a sept.
Autumn wind snatches
flame leaves stripped falling drifting
bonfire of dead souls.
Howling winter wind
wolves at the door famine-brave
moonlight on hoar frost
on claws scratching, splintering
wooden defences ceding.
Spears
thrusting
green shooting
dark earth piercing
snow melting
snowdrop
spring.
Jane Dougherty Writes 
Hmmm… I might try all three, back later with my offerings! ( I’ve never written a haiku or tanka) 😲
You haven’t lived 🙂
Haha! I’ve never been tempted by haiku, although I know so many people love it.
INTOXICATING
Another Autumn
The mushrooms work their magic
Appearing, fruiting, dying
A year older certainly
A little wiser? Let’s see
Thanks! First one 🙂
Oops!
Updated version:
SEASONING – THE SPICE OF LIFE
Nature Springs to life
Summersaults, leaves with Autumn
Winter drawers on now
Very clever! So clever I didn’t get the full cleverness of it first time. Well done, you 🙂
Thank you. 🙂
HEARTS AND FLOWERS
We
Can’t wait
Celebrate
Valentine’s Day
As the first
Day of
Spring
And just to round things off here is a seasonal poem in the four by six form. (A four by six is a poem which attempts to make a universal statement in no more than four lines each containing six syllables.)
WHOLESOMENESS
Everyone praises Spring
Summer and Autumn while
Winter gets a bad rap
Ego got in the way
Above and beyond the call of duty 🙂
It got involved and didn’t want to stop. 🙂
Now that I’ve finally completed my offerings, I have time to realise that I forgot to sention that I enjoyed your own offerings. p.s. I should be very grateful if you could remove my first stab at “SEASONING – THE SPICE OF LIFE” leaving just the updated version. Thank you. 🙂
Will do.
Thanks. 🙂
I have three options, which by the way may be familiar to some of you but I’ll post them anyway:
1. https://peterbouchier.wordpress.com/english-essays-and-poems-2/autumn-leave/
2. https://peterbouchier.wordpress.com/english-essays-and-poems-2/seasons-of-life/
3. https://peterbouchier.wordpress.com/english-essays-and-poems-2/stormy-haiku/
Hope you’ll like them. Spread the word!
I do like them Peter and I’ll post them all on ONE CONDITION—you write me a poem that follows the rules of the challenge 🙂
Sorry I forgot to include the season’s name. I’ll have to think about it but I’ll manage.
I know you will 🙂 I’m just enjoying forcing you to write something new.
Well then, there we are: https://peterbouchier.wordpress.com/english-essays-and-poems-2/tempest/
That was quick! And it’s a good one, too 🙂
My pleasure!
Keep
Towel
Near-at-hand
Hitchhike across
Galaxy
Panic
Free
Great
Autumn
Forty-two
Omniscient year
Universe
Reveals
All
Thanks Veronica 🙂
For what they are worth, 2 septs, a haiku (first ever) and a tanka (another first)…
Autumn Sept
Leaves
fall, red
as blood, gold
sun-drops from stiff
barren twigs,
summer’s
end.
Winter Haiku
Soft snow stifles sound
ice sparkles, crackles under
foot. Dark winter rules.
Spring Tanka
Ewes milk flows, lambs bleat,
her foot-steps green jaded land.
The Fiery One brings
tender warmth. Earth responds with
joy, season’s cycle renewed.
Summer Sept
Beach
Blue sky
Sand and sea
Endless sunshine
on bare skin
Childhood
dreams.
https://kmmyrman.wordpress.com/2015/11/04/seasons/
My contribution to this week’s challenge. I had never written a Tanka and have just recently become acquainted with Septs. Hoping I did them justice. Thank you Jane for the challenge! ❤️ ~kat
Thanks for sending them in, Kat, and for experimenting with new forms 🙂
http://gentlementalannie.com/2015/11/05/colors-of-fall-and-winter-poem/
Thanks! Nice one.
Another fine challenge, Jane, as well as your examples.
I decided to use all three formats in one poem. (Ken)
Vibrant in Passing
autumn’s fashion show
displayed across Ozark bluffs
umber lacing green
reds
once green
framed in blue
slowly falling
from the sky
autumn
leaves
vibrant in passing
leaves dancing, grasping the air
the days of autumn
prelude to winter’s slumber
conjured by a simple frost
https://rivrvlogr.wordpress.com/2015/11/07/vibrant-in-passing/
Beautiful examples. Umber—that’s a word you don’t hear often, and so appropriate.
Hello Jane. I just read your poems for a second time and they are beautiful.
Sometimes I think I’ve absorbed a poem and then I read it again and realize ‘not fully’. I guess that’s one reason why some poems are read over and over. I pinged a link to my two submissions. I’ll check back later. 🙂
Thanks Janice 🙂 Some combinations of words have the same effect as notes of music—they just strike a chord whoever we are. Finding the combination is sometimes a matter of luck, seems to me.
Hi again:
My link is: https://ontheland.wordpress.com/2015/11/08/jane-dougherty-poetry-challenge-4-seasons/
Here is my haiku:
As day yields to night,
summer surrenders to fall,
winds spread her bounty.
And the Sept (one of the words may cause you to stumble but it’s what my heart did this Fall… It was hard to let go..)
Fall
mist rises,
days shorten,
hearts stumble, ’til
golden brown
glimmer
cheers.
Thanks for the challenge!
Thanks Janice! Two beauties 🙂
Thank you 🙂
Here is my offering
http://elusivetrope.com/2015/11/09/unrequited/
Unrequited
each
footstep
sinks in cold
and rises in cold
frostbit blue
winter
trek
I wish you hadn’t reminded me…
Just don’t shoot the bearer of the message
Just make the next one a spring theme. No snow.
Okay. But I can bring up the slush. 😉
As long as it’s well melted.
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