2012 Fall haiku by Patricia K
by Patricia | 9.23.12
She’s heeeerrrre …
Autumnal equinox: the tipping point between two seasons of light.
Fall arrived on Saturday a little before 9 a.m. I thought it happened today because my calendar says so, but my calendar got it wrong. I wonder what else my calendar has gotten wrong.
For those of us who (like me) may feel the touch of melancholy this time of year but have the impulse to celebrate anyway, WIZ is opening a haiku chain. Many of you know what a haiku is–probably, you’ve know since elementary school or junior high. For those who feel uncertain, a haiku is a classical Japanese poetical form, usually 17 syllables all in a single line in Japanese, but there are longer and shorter forms. A haiku written in English stacks lines, often in the order of one short line of 5 syllables on top, a long line of 7 syllables in the middle, then another short line of 5 syllables on the bottom. But there are many paths–pick what suits you. Often, haiku mention the season under consideration. If you wish to learn more about haiku, you can go here or here.
How a WIZ haiku chain usually goes is this: Someone starts the chain. This year, that’s me. Somebody follows me, adding a single haiku in the comments, and then another person takes a crack, and ’round we go. You may link your haiku to an image in the previous haiku or stud the chain with something wholly original. I kind of like seeing other people’s individual expressions of how the arrival of this season strikes them. Other than the informal, “one-at-a-time-please†tradition, there’s no limit to turns a participant can take and no deadline for this activity. It runs as long as it runs.
My opener:
Summer’s final words
rasp leaves, shimmer on the lip
of the horizon.
Go!
September 23rd, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Horizons here are fickle,
fixed, and, like seasons and like script,
crescented crosswise and flipped.
September 23rd, 2012 at 1:50 pm
.
Crescented crosswise,
The wheat flipped through the chilling air.
The reaper moves on.
September 23rd, 2012 at 3:36 pm
crackle of corn stalks
soaring sky of wisping clouds
rain patters on leaves
September 23rd, 2012 at 3:44 pm
the night comes early
golden pumpkins fill our dreams
the brown trees sleep too
(by Virginia)
September 23rd, 2012 at 8:13 pm
Horses twitch, flick their tails
To whip away autumn’s last cloud of flies
Left by swallows gone south
September 24th, 2012 at 11:46 am
above the harvest
a gold thumbnail moon
tips to the west
September 24th, 2012 at 11:49 am
Or, riffing off Th.:
as the reaper moves on
a gold thumbnail moon
tips to the west
September 24th, 2012 at 11:51 am
windswept pond:
a willow searches
for its lost leaves
September 24th, 2012 at 11:53 am
One more:
from the oak’s shadows:
the crow’s lonely caw,
the shudder of leaves
September 24th, 2012 at 6:30 pm
Spruce ignore the frost;
Gingko hands out golden coins:
Maples immolate.
September 25th, 2012 at 11:50 am
see the maples burning,
but they can not drive away
the chill and the frost
September 27th, 2012 at 10:20 am
rushing wind
rattling leaves
parking lot
pavement
September 30th, 2012 at 10:06 pm
blinding white corn moon
drops silver grain to the ground
darkness to see by
October 1st, 2012 at 8:46 pm
Burning shadows light
Pewter meadows–rabbits gorge:
Running come hunters.
October 2nd, 2012 at 9:13 am
leaves blaze, fall
same old song says crow
kraa kraa kraa
October 4th, 2012 at 3:30 pm
Amsterdam’s canals
Glitter in the growing dark,
Lights limning bridges.
October 4th, 2012 at 3:35 pm
From sunlit tree limbs
A press ciders apples that
Taste of tart, brown, gold.
October 10th, 2012 at 4:34 am
At last cool atoms!
Steaming skin soothed/shed.
Now wait for hotness.
October 13th, 2012 at 5:06 pm
Jigsaw winds piece leaves
from the oak canopy; feet
jumble fall’s tangrams.
October 19th, 2012 at 8:54 am
Wind rips tears from my
Eyes. Bike tires skid and crunch dry
Leaves. Cold skies darken.
October 22nd, 2012 at 10:04 am
Sleep calls, but so does
Song. I fight the ice, give tongue, but
Fall is mightier.
October 22nd, 2012 at 10:51 am
The Fall is mightier
than this two-edged doubled summer blade.
Autumn insists, regardless.
October 28th, 2012 at 3:26 pm
Flown, swallows’ airy
geometrics. Hawks now spin
days in slow circles.
November 1st, 2012 at 3:37 am
Days in slow circles
Fall. They fall so slow, so slow.
Day after leaf.