Carpe Diem #896 Neko Yanagi (pussy willow)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We are almost through the first half of January, so our prompts of this month will become more spring-like, but are still for winter. Today I have a beautiful classical kigo for you, Neko Yanagi (pussy willow), and I think that in some regions of the world the pussy willow already starts blooming.

I searched the internet for a little background on the pussy willow, especially in the Chinese and Japanese literary world and I found a few wonderful pieces of poetry.

Li Ch'ing-Chao (1084-1151), a famous female Chinese poet, has this to say about the pussy willows:

Warm rain and soft breeze by turns
Have just broken
And driven away the chill.
Moist as the pussy willows,
Light as the plum blossoms,
Already I feel the heart of Spring vibrating. 

Su Tung-p’o (1036-1101), the famous poet of the T'ang period, writes about the beauty of the green leaves on the willow branches in spring:

yanagi wa midori, hana wa beni

Willows stand for things green,   flowers for things red.  

Neko Yanagi (pussy willow) used as a New Year decoration

 

During the Heian period (794-1185) the court at Kyoto also adored the willows and the cherry blossoms as harbingers of Spring.

And I found a few nice haiku written by Issa and Basho:

cha no kemuri yanagi to tomo ni soyogu nari

tea steam
and willow
sway together

© Issa (Tr. Chris Drake)

haremono ni fureru yanagi no shinae kana

supple as the hands
softly touching the tumors —
willow sprays bending.

© Basho (Tr. Yuasa)

And I had to write a haiku myself with this prompt. It wasn't easy, but finally (after running through my archives) I found a nice second stanza of a Tan Renga. That stanza inspired me to write the following haiku.

tears of a geisha
her virginity lost to a soldier -
pussy willow blooms

© Chèvrefeuille

Not a real "winter-kigo" haiku I think, but in a way I like this haiku a lot ... don't ask me why, because I can not give words to that feeling I have about this haiku.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 17th at noon (CET). I will try to post our next episode, our 3rd CD Special, later on. For now ... have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with us all.  

Share your haiku inspired on this episode with us all here at our Haiku Kai.

1.	Ese	6.	jazzytower	11.	hamish
2.	Blossom Vydrina	7.	Paloma	12.	Janice
3.	kyle tm	8.	ladyleemanila	13.	Bastet
4.	Cressida	9.	Dolores	14.	Carol Campbell
5.	joanna	10.	Rheumatologe	15.	Sara McNulty

(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)