Carpe Diem #516 Issa (3), "skylight!"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Until today this month of CDHK is wonderful ... It's really a joy to read all those wonderful haiku by our ''big five'' as I am preparing these episodes. I read all wonderful haiku by them and it is a challenge to find the haiku to use for our episodes.
Today we have our third haiku by Issa and as I have told you earlier this month .... Issa looked very closely to nature and respected even the most little creatures such as mosquitos and flies. So for this episode I have an extra challenge for you all. Write/compose, by stepping into Issa's footprints, haiku about the littlest creatures on earth. So you have to write/compose a haiku about bugs. It's not easy I think, but maybe it helps to go outside and grab some earth in your backyard to discover the little creatures living in it.
My youngest grandson (the youngest son of our eldest daughter) is a "bug-explorer" and is always on search for little creatures in the dirt ... he loves ants for example and isn't afraid for bees and other stinging creatures. He always is on the haunt to catch them. So he could be easily a son of Issa (smiles).

Here are a few haiku by Issa about ''bugs'':

sore abu ni sewa wo yakasu na akarimado

don't be mean
to that horsefly
skylight!

Credits: Horsefly

cha no mizu mo kakehi de kuru nari hotaru kuru

from the tea water's
water pipe also comes...
a firefly

tôshi tamae ka hae no gotoki sô hitori

let him pass
like a mosquito, a fly...
solitary priest

hae uchite kyô mo kiku nari yama no kane

while swatting a fly
today again...
the mountain temple bell

Credits: Fly

What a beautiful (and scary) creatures flies are, but to Issa they are a great source of inspiration. He has composed several haiku on flies and other bugs. Not an easy task to write/compose a new haiku in the same tone, sense and spirit as Issa did.

Here is my attempt:

between lettuce

I spot a mating pair of flies -

no salad today

searching for insects

my grandson scoops up the mud

in the fresh puddle

sultry summer evening

the sound of buzzing insects

deepens the silence

© Chèvrefeuille

Sultry Summer Evening

Well .... I hope you did like this post and I hope it will inspire you to write/compose new haiku in the same sense, tone and spirit as the ones by Issa ... and of course it must go about bugs ...

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until July 19th at noon (CET). I will try to post our next episode, the thirs haiku by Shiki, later on. For now .... have fun!