Carpe Diem #778 amenbou (water strider)

Dear Haijin, Visitors, and Travelers,

For today I offer a simple post in which we seek our inspiration from the Water Strider or Whirligig (Amenbou).

biograph.org

We first met the water strider in November as a part of the Little Creatures episodes.  This was the featured haiku from Tan Taigi, who wrote in the Edo period but became famous through Masaoka Shiki:


     the whirligig;
     when it stops skating,
     the legs float away

     Taigi 


Our host explained that

"When for a moment it ceases its perpetual gyrating and figure-skating, the current pulls his legs along and the whole posture of the insect becomes assymmetrical. This is all there is in this haiku, but we feel in and through it just as much of the power of nature, law, inevitability, as in the rising of the sun or the procession of the seasons."

     Tone River--
     only one solitary
     water strider

     Issa 
     (Tr. David Lanoue)

   

     six dots -
     a shadow racing
     under water

     Gabi Greve, 2006 

Wikimedia

Gabi Greve's haiku inspires me to write the following:

     unseen - 
     the water strider 
     dragging its shadow

     Paloma

And - here is a video to inspire you!  Have fun!

This episode is open for your submissions at July 18 at 7.00 (CET) and will remain open until noon July 21 (CET).