Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,
Another modern kigo based on Jane Reichhold's "A Dictionary of Haiku" is ahead of us. Today it's another kind of feeling that belongs to autumn. Today we share haiku on grief or sadness, a feeling of loss ... This feeling is strong in autumn. We see the leaves change their colors into all shades and finally they are cut of, cut from the livestream of the tree, than they fall ... and in a last sigh they dance away on the wind leaving us just with their faint perfume of decay, the remembrance of a long spring and summer ... grief ... it feels like departing ...
The haiku which Jane shares as an example of grief is a tribute to someone named Charles B. Dickson and this is her haiku:
stone mountain
saying good-bye to him
was even harder
© Jane Reichhold
This haiku has a strong feeling of grief and sadness, of departure ... she has touched me deep with this haiku and it brought the next haiku to my mind written by Basho:
tsuka mo ugoke waga naku koe wa aki no kaze
shake! o tomb!
the sound of my wailing
is the wind of autumn
© Basho (Tr. Minoru Toyoda)
This is what grief means ...
This is what grief means ...
It's not an easy task to write another haiku on grief, but I have to try ...
at the graveyard
my brother's grave covered
with colorful leaves
© Chèvrefeuille
Haiku can be a source for sharing grief, sadness and joy too of course. Not need for long verses, haiku as short as it is can be the word giver of your emotions.
This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until September 7th at noon (CET). I will post our next episode, belief in spirits, later on. !! By the way I will not publish a new episode of CD's "Little Creatures" this week, because we had the GW-post by Issa yesterday in which he asked us to write a haibun to honor those little creatures. Of course next week there will be a new episode of CD's "Little Creatures"!!
This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until September 7th at noon (CET). I will post our next episode, belief in spirits, later on. !! By the way I will not publish a new episode of CD's "Little Creatures" this week, because we had the GW-post by Issa yesterday in which he asked us to write a haibun to honor those little creatures. Of course next week there will be a new episode of CD's "Little Creatures"!!
Your haiku is stunningly sad.. I think we had some similar haiku when we did threnody
ReplyDeleteIt is a difficult thing to talk about but I think we are refreshed when we write about it.
ReplyDeleteYour haiku....powerful image, Kristjaan...yes, heart wrenching and sad but emotionally so rich and touching.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Bjorn. Your haiku gives the right feeling.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to try my hand at this.. for the grief of losing my mom is still just as raw sometimes as it was the day we lost her.. she was very special to me. We'll see what I can do.. Very lovely haiku by the way, all of it!
ReplyDeleteOh Kristjaan -- my heart hurt to visit his grave with you. And yet -- the colorful leaves give it a faint feeling of hope, too. Thank you for sharing this here.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't get Usha Menon's link to work via Linky but here's the post: http://eccentricgrandmum.blogspot.com/2014/09/haiku-grief.html
ReplyDeleteYour haiku was so very sad ... as was Basho's ... I found this a particularly difficult prompt ... but it was a lovely challenge.
ReplyDeleteGrief can be a comfortable place. And yet once we leave it's embrace we can perhaps smile again.
ReplyDeleteLate on this one. Mine is up at: http://purplepeninportland.wordpress.com/2014/09/08/grief/
ReplyDelete