Haiku for a noisy evening

the night vixen’s shriek
drowned in the rising swell
of crane voices

haiku for winter sleep

This photograph by an unnamed photographer of a ladybird in the ash of Mount Etna seems appropriate

Heavy heart and
head yet the house fills
with ladybirds

Haiku for geese and falling leaves

For Frank Tassone’s haikai challenge. Two haiku as there are two themes proposed.

I see no geese
winging south—the north wind
is empty

rain the red leaves
puddles of dying flame
summer ashes

Haiku for a south wind

poplars sway
tall ships tossed on wind waves
far from the sea

wave of heat
the swell rocks the roses
becalmed

clatter of acorns
autumn hail bounces in oak
shade—dry pattering

Yellow haiku

The flower I had in mind was fleabane, (see image). Tansy sounds more poetic, but the colour is a slightly more acid yellow.

Photo ©Phil Sellens

the slow light is long
low spreading the rich yellow
of tansy flowers

Haiku sequence: Birds in a hot sky

A haiku (hopefully) sequence for the dverse prompt

 

blue

bold as brass echoes

with summer

 

swallows at sunset

flicker in elegant flight

winged evening dress

 

heat throbs

woodpecker-laughs while we bake

with tree envy

 

still hushed air

grasped in an iron fist

hot as a cat’s breath

 

too hot to sing

sparrowhawk ever ready

to pick a fight

Haiku sequence for the thunder moon

For Frank Tassone’s Thunder Moon challenge.

 

serene—riding

in unclouded silence—

thunder moon

 

summer speaks

silver and gold with thunder

in the moon’s voice

 

thunderstorms

nights rocked with rain lit day-bright

behind clouds—the moon

 

night storm

among the billows

the moon glows

 

look—not fireflies

about the moon not stars

lightning flickers

From dusk to morning

 

Deer are barking

across the setting sun

a world apart

 

through the long grass

snake glides

climbs the fig tree biblically

taking the slender boughway

over the hedge top

 

in the path

yellow feathers strewn

midnight feast

 

oriole flutes an elegy

for lost kindred

in the gold of morning

 

small corpses

cat-kill

laid by the path

an offering to the night fox

are gone by morning

 

Haiku for wild irises

For Frank Tassone’s challenge.

 

around the well

the shooting spears

of untamed irises

 

ephemeral

born in spring rains

beetle bright

 

in spring damp

cool green water blue a world

in a flower

Haiku for midsummer

The white bird is an egret. We usually see them in flocks, but this solitary individual (weirdo maybe) was flying with a great flock of red kites. The kites were after the hot-blooded creatures disturbed by the mowing, the egret was after grasshoppers.

 

 

beneath drying stalks

once gold

green ribs shine

 

waves of heat-shimmer

on the meadow break

with poplar-hiss

 

shade pools

dim as ocean depths where

bramble flowers wink

 

all these months

the thrush has sung dawn to dusk

through the dark days

 

light glitters now

damselfly-bright on the last

wave tip of spring