Carpe Diem #1219 Kingfisher (Kawasemi)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

From a rainy Netherlands I wish you a great evening and welcome at a new episode in our exploration of the classical and non-classical kigo (seasonword) for summer. Today I have a wonderful classical kigo for you, Kingfisher (Kawasemi).

In my opinion the Kingfisher is one of the most colorful water birds. For sure here in The Netherlands. This Kingfisher is a wonderful fisherman and fast as the wind. I think this wonderful bird can inspire you all to write nice haiku.

Kingfishers are a group of small to medium sized brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species being found in the Old World and Australasia. The group is treated either as a single family, Alcedinidae, or as a suborder Alcedines containing three families, Alcedinidae (river kingfishers), Halcyonidae (tree kingfishers), and Cerylidae (water kingfishers). There are roughly 90 species of kingfisher. All have large heads, long, sharp, pointed bills, short legs, and stubby tails. Most species have bright plumage with little differences between the sexes. Most species are tropical in distribution, and a slight majority are found only in forests. They consume a wide range of prey as well as fish, usually caught by swooping down from a perch. Like other members of their order they nest in cavities, usually tunnels dug into the natural or artificial banks in the ground. A few species, principally insular forms, are threatened with extinction.

Wow! What a wonderful bird, really a King.

colorful reflection
throws shadows on the brook -
Kingfisher attacks
silver comes to live in the brook -
circles in water

© Chèvrefeuille

The above tanka is a re-done cascading haiku which I wrote back in 2013, also about the Kingfisher. And here is a (not so) new haiku written by me:

a blueish flash
in crystal clear water
only circles left

© Chèvrefeuille

kawasemi satte yubi ni yubiwa no nokoru nomi

a kingfisher left—
on my finger
only the ring remains

© Kusatao Nakamura

And now it is up to you ... share your haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form inspired on this prompt with us all.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until July 17th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new weekend-meditation.