Friday, December 14, 2012

Carpe Diem #70, Hawk (taka)


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We are almost halfway our third Carpe Diem month December. I have read wonderful haiku and haiku series on the classical Japanese kigo which are the prompts for this month. It's really awesome as I read all your nice haiku. It makes me proud and humble that I may be your host.
I will publish a new Carpe Diem Preview one of these days in which I will look back at the first half of this month.

Credits: Hawk in Winter

Today our prompt is Hawk (taka) and I am looking forward to your haiku. As I was preparing this episode I sought for a few examples of haiku with Hawk in it. I ran into the next haiku by Buson. It's a haiku with humor in it and I enjoyed reading it and could see the imagery in my mind.

kakitsubata betari no tobi no tarete keru

an Iris
with a Hawk's droppings
splashed over

Also Issa provided us with a nice haiku with Hawk in it:

otsu-e no oni mo niji to ya nukume-dori

even the painted devil
won't look ... little bird warming
the Hawk's nest

Explanation for this one by Issa:

On cold winter nights, Hawks capture small birds and sit on them to keep their bottoms warm, releasing them in the morning. Is this mere folklore or is it real animal behavior?
Issa suggests that the Hawk is a greater devil than the devil in the picture: a nightmarish child-snatcher whom even the devil fears to look upon.

Credits: Japanese Devil

Isn't it a wonderful prompt? In my region of The Netherlands, the Low lands, we can spot often Hawks whole year through. So let's go composing some haiku.

between bare branches
high above the white world
Hawks looking for prey

little bird caught
the Hawk is warming his butt -
stove warms my feet

Well ... I liked to write these haiku on our prompt Hawk (taka) for today. This prompt will stay on 'till December 16th 11.59 AM (CET) and later on today I will publish, 'cold crow (kangarasu)', our new prompt around 10.00 PM (CET).

Have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with Carpe Diem's daily haiku meme.


7 comments:

  1. I love your first poem. I often watch hawks stalking other birds in winter and they are quite beautiful in a fearsome way.

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  2. Ha ha I love the idea of hawk warming his butt. Wonderful !

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  3. Thank you for keeping this going, I learn more from all the great entries, as well as the classical entries than I ever made in any other way. I like your first haiku a lot. Björn

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  4. Hehehe, I enjoyed the poor Iris getting the Hawk's droppings and also your little bird heating the hawk's butt - so funny - while a stove warms your feet, nice contrast.
    Well, where I live, peasants keep their cattle in the ground floor of their humble cabins to keep it warm. Electricity is so expensive that poor people have to use natural resources.
    :)))

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  5. the Pirate invited me to join these challenges ^^ i'm not very good at it but i suppose i could use some practice and learn.. ^^

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  6. I love both of your Haiku, each in a style of their own. 'High' art and warming humour...thank you :)

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  7. I posted haiku #2 ... in the spirit of honoring souls, not disrespect to those suffering the loss.
    Humor, I feel, is a delicate matter when there are those grieving so deeply. My son and his family live in Aurora, CO where there was another senseless incident, and my grand-daughters went to a movie in Aurora, last evening. My heart hurts, and I'm thousands of miles away.
    Kris, if you feel it is inappropriate, please feel free to not post the link.
    Peace,
    Siggi

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