Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,
Autumn ... what a wonderful season. This season is really my season. I love the change in nature through an explosion of colors from green to yellow, from yellow to orange, from orange to red and finally brow in all kinds of shades. Autumn a time of detachment, a time of saying farewell to summer ... but autumn is also the season of harvesting the crops on the fields. Autumn is a time of preparation. We prepare our families and friends for the winter by filling the basement or the pantry. In this we don't be so different of the animals and birds around us, who also are preparing for winter. The only thing which remains on the fields and meadows are the bundles of straw or Warazuka our prompt for today.
harvesting rice
only the straw remains
bundled up
straw bundles
used as building stones for their hut -
laughter of children
Well ... not a long post this time, because I have some troubles with Internet, pictures don't load and that kind of things.
This prompt will stay on 'till September 25th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our new episode, Chooyoo (Chrystanthemum Festival), later on today around 7.00 PM (CET). !! Straw bundles is open for your submissions at 7.00 PM (CET) !!
Have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with us all here at Carpe Diem.
Is sheaf maybe a synonym? I think I will use that....
ReplyDeleteI like your haiku today. I hope your internet stops acting up. That can be so frustrating!
ReplyDeletep.s. to Bjorn--I was curious so I looked up the definition of sheaves and it says it's an agricultural bundle of cereal plants. I could be wrong, but I don't think that straw qualifies. I think straw is usually in bales.
ReplyDeleteThese are referred to as bundles: http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0000586109 - opie
ReplyDeleteI like the 'light hearted' ambiance of your haiku today ~ lovely ~ carol ^_^
ReplyDeleteIn my own experience "sheaf" is just not used that much in English in America anymore, at least, in this context. It can be used to describe reams of paper.
ReplyDeleteOn the farm I grew up I only ever saw straw in bales, those blocky rectangular shaped bundles tightly bound with string or wire. So we just called them bales of straw/straw bales (just as we called them hay bales if made of hay). I wonder if a sheaf means the bundles that are more vertical, bound in the middle? I don't know.
On our farm at least, the difference between hay and straw was that hay was alfalfa and straw was....whatever grass of leftover stalks happened to be used for it. I think. The main difference was that straw was really light in color and in weight. We used it for bedding and for soaking up all the messes cows make.
This is one of the prompts where I wish that I had a better understanding of, or experience of something similar to, the original context of the kigo. I don't know what bundles of straw from the rice fields look like.
I like the way children are able to use almost anything--even straw bundles--as playthings. Who needs toys?
ReplyDeleteI guess I looked at the straw as what was left after the harvest was over
ReplyDeleteYou have inspired many directions with this prompt I believe
How beautiful your Haiku is Kristjaan!My favourite is the first one and I have used that as my inspiration because this was a tough one for me-I almost gave up :P
ReplyDelete