Thursday, December 13, 2012

Carpe Diem #68, winter grasses (fuyu kusa)



Dear Haijin, visitors, travelers,

!! Sorry I am a little late with publishng this post. I was to busy to publish it on time !!

Another new day has come, after a wonderful Special by Buson, we continuing our journey through the classical winter kigo. We have mid-winter kigo ... today our prompt is 'Winter Grasses (Fuyu Kusa).
The word 'kusa' is used for all kinds of grass, weeds, herbs, wild plants, wild flowers and such. With 'fuyu' in front of it becomes 'winter grass' or in a broader meaning 'winter plants'. I have used this kigo for mid-winter, but it can also be used for all plants and such of the whole winter season.

When I was looking for haiku on 'winter grass' I ran into a wonderful haiku by Issa. Not a haiku on 'winter grass', but more of Spring.

waga kuni wa kusa sae sakinu sakura kana

in my province
grass blooms too ...
cherry blossoms

I found a haiku by Buson on 'early winter grass':

aki sarike ikukani narinu kareobana

the day has come
when Autumn is over
dead pampas grass

OK ... back to our today's prompt 'winter grass (fuyu kusa)'. Grass in winter looks yellow, light green or even brown. It's cracking beneath your feet when it is frozen and it becomes green again when covered with snow for a long time.

the grass under my feet
once covered with fresh snow
feels like velvet

Credits: Winter Grass

after the frosty night
the long pampas grass looks like
fragile crystal

Winter Grass

Aren't it nice haiku? The above picture is taken in my own country Netherlands when we had a big pack of snow. We have that kind of heavy snow fall often.

A last one:

pampas grass
bows beneath the snow
for Mother Earth

This prompt will stay on 'til December 14th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will publish our new prompt around 10.00 PM (CET) and that will be ... 'year market (toshi no ichi)'.

Have fun. Be creative and inspired and I hope you will share your wonderful haiku on Carpe Diem.


 

12 comments:

  1. This beautiful post was worth the waiting.
    Velvet and fragile crystal, I love your winter grass!
    :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. A side note...
    I had inadvertently blocked access to one of the contributing poets
    and the instructions sent me to my blogs comment site.

    You may recall this elderly contributor is not familiar with the workings
    of a blog site...
    and trying to follow the instructions, wiped out a large number of the
    responses, including yours to my posts. Therefore, I will not be able to respond to those comments...

    I want to thank you for your very nice responses you have made...it warms my heart to see your words responding to mine.

    Peace,
    Siggi in Downeast Maine, USA
    PS....what ever I did, tho harmful in one way, restored the blogger's post for my access and I am no longer blocking my access to respond to theirs ! So, in a way, mission accomplished ☺

    ReplyDelete
  3. Winter grasses on the Downeast Shores of Maine have not been blessed with any amount of snow ... your photos are an excellent reminder of their beauty blowing in the wind, snow covered...inspired waiting for the winter's snow.

    ReplyDelete
  4. ...bows beneath the snow for Mother Earth'....wonderful!
    Thank you as always :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. So nice, I really liked your haiku today Kristjaan :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. I am unable to post my link...

    http://unshakenthoughts.wordpress.com/2012/12/13/winter-grasses-haiku/

    ReplyDelete
  7. Dear Kristjaan,

    Kindly remove two extra links that I have linked here.

    Apologies...

    Ta
    Tarun

    ReplyDelete
  8. You wrote some beautiful haiku on this theme. And a wonderful theme, too.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks! The pampas grass reminded me of Patagonia.
    Somehow it worked on the second try. I'm a bit late. Glad I've made it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I like "fragile crystal"!! Thank you for sharing!!

    ReplyDelete