Carpe Diem Haiku Writing Techniques #5, comparison

!! I publish this episode earlier, because I am in the nightshift !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's my pleasure to present a new episode of our Haiku Writing Techniques. This time it's all about "comparison". Here is what I found about "comparison" in Jane Reichhold's "Bare Bones, school of haiku":

In the words of Betty Drevniok: "In haiku the SOMETHING and the SOMETHING ELSE are set down together in clearly stated images. Together they complete and fulfill each other as ONE PARTICULAR EVENT." She rather leaves the reader to understand that the idea of comparison is showing how two different things are similar or share similar aspects.

a spring nap
downstream cherry trees
in bud

What is expressed, but not said, is the thought that buds on a tree can be compared to flowers taking a nap. One could also ask to what other images could cherry buds be compared? A long list of items can form in one's mind and be substituted for the first line. Or one can turn the idea around and ask what in the spring landscape can be compared to a nap without naming things that close their eyes to sleep. By changing either of these images one can come up with one's own haiku while getting a new appreciation and awareness of comparison.

Rabbit Ear Iris

Here is a haiku example with "comparison" in it by Basho:

rabbit year iris
how much it looks like
its image in water

(C) Basho

Or this one by Robert Mainone:

a sky full of stars
how improbable
my parents would meet

© Robert Mainone

A haiku needs two parts. In this haiku the “sky full of stars” is compared to “the meeting of parents” and the million-to-one chance of that happening. The poet has achieved an aha moment! with the connection.
This Haiku Writing Technique is not easy, but at the other hand it's an easy to choose way to make your haiku a beauty.

I couldn't come up with a great haiku in which I use "comparison", so I have ran through my archive and found a haiku which I think can be used as an example in this episode about "comparison".

seeking for relief
aching of a broken heart -
love isn't forever

© Chèvrefeuille (published earlier on my personal haiku page)

Comparison ... a nice way to write/compose haiku ... it brings you in a way immediately two lines and you have just to write a third line towards it to make your haiku complete.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until February 6th at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our next episode, Water Lilies, later on.

!! PS. I hadn't time to publish a new episode of "Sparkling Stars" last Saturday, so I have decided to publish that "late" episode this Wednesday February 4th !!