Carpe Diem #761 Pines

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I wasn't aware that pines were a seasonword for summer, because I only had the imagination that pines were more of winter, but Jane Reichhold puts them here in summer. We are exploring the modern kigo for summer as gathered by Jane in her saijiki "A Dictionary of Haiku" and these are a few examples of her haiku on this modern summer kigo:

a tearing sound
a pine cone opens
to the heat

friendly
the pine shares its fragrance
mid-day shade

reaching for the sun
the great pine's shadow
shapes the tree

the tea
in a pine needle cup
coolness

© Jane Reichhold

And of course I just had to share a few "pine"-haiku by Basho:

pine and cedar
to admire the wind
smell the sound

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

Or this beauty:

pine wind
needles falling on the water's
cool sound

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

And than there is this wonderful haiku on pine by Issa:

new summer robes--
listening to the pine breeze
they emerge

© Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David Lanoue)

Pine Tree Bonsai 

All wonderful haiku on pines, our prompt for today. What to do with this prompt myself? Let me think ... maybe I have to try the "baransu" technique to come up with a haiku on pines.

in the fireplace
crackling pine wood
Ah, that perfume

© Chèvrefeuille

And I love to share a cascading haiku which I wrote back in 2012, short before I started Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, and after I had read Basho's "Narrow Road Into The Deep North".

anxious to see
the twin pine of the stories
once told

once told
a tale on pine trees
bonsai like

bonsai like
the islands of Matsushima
covered with pines

covered with pines
but the wondrous twin pine
I have never seen

© Chèvrefeuille

To bring this episode to its closure a last haiku from my archives (also based on "Narrow Road":

covered with pines
the place of my dreams
Matsushima

© Chèvrefeuille

Credits: Matsushima (Pine Islands) woodblock print

Well .... a lot to handle, but it was really a joy to create this post. I hope it will inspire you to write an all new haiku. Ok ... another haiku "hot off the press" (smiles):

seeking shelter
beneath the giant pine
midsummer rain

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until June 25th at noon (CET). I will publish our next episode, a new Tokubetsudesu post, later on. For now ... have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with us all.