Carpe Diem #1063 butterfly

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As you have noticed maybe I had a kind of delay yesterday and couldn't publish on time, so here is our second episode and than we are back on track.

Today we have a prompt which we have seen here very often and recently we had a nice Tokubetsudesu episode on Ese in which we could read several beauties in which butterflies played the leading role. Today our prompt is butterfly.

Butterflies are synonymous with change, metamorphosis, lightness, growth, messengers of the gods ... so there is a broad range of themes in wghich we can use this modern kigo "butterfly", however "butterfly" is also a classical kigo, the only thing that's different is that the modern kigo "butterfly" is for autumn and the classical kigo "butterfly" is for summer.

As I started preparing this episode I first thought of that beautiful haiku by Moritake:

a fallen blossom
returning to the bough, I thought --
but no, a butterfly

© Arakida Moritake (1473-1549) (Tr. Steven D. Carter)

Butterfly

Why came this haiku in mind? Well ... when I was doing my research for this prompt I ran into a beautiful haiku by Jane Reichhold in which the same idea, the riddle, is used. So I just had to share that haiku here with you:

a falling leaf
up from the earth
a matching butterfly

© Jane Reichhold

Do you see the "riddle" in this one? It's the same as in the haiku by Moritake.

And here are a few other examples of this modern kigo extracted from Jane Reichhold's "A Dictionary of Haiku":

migrating
yet the monarch takes time
to visit me

white butterfly
afternoon Sunshine
slides away

© Jane Reichhold

Butterfly on Lycoris

Today I have chosen to share a tanka with you inspired on the beautiful haiku by Jane Reichhold:

Pygmalion's lesson
every man and woman has to be
like a caterpillar
growing to the next level
become a butterfly

© Chèvrefeuille

And a haiku from my archives:

fragile wings
pointing the way to transformation -
the summer breeze

© Chèvrefeuille

Inspiration enough I would say (smiles) ... I am looking forward to all of your wonderful haiku and tanka.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 29th at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our next episode, driftwood, later on. For now ... have fun!