Haiku for National Haiku Writing Month – July 2024 Second Half

 

National Haiku Writing Month has been founded by the well known haiku poet Michael Dylan Welch. The goal is to write at least one haiku a day. National Haiku Writing Month is in its 14th year. [1] I enjoy writing to the prompts on Facebook. Here are some interesting links: [2]. The NaHaiWriMo daily writing prompter for June 2024 has been Veronica Marjon Van Bruggen [3]. Thank you, Veronica, for doing this job!

故人西辭黃鶴樓，
煙花三月下揚州。
孤帆遠影碧空盡，
惟見長江天際流。
送孟浩然之廣陵。
李白。
At the Tower of the Yellow Cranes in the west I say
goodbye to my old friend,
Amidst the blossoms of March, he travels downstream to Yangzhou.
Far away the lonely sail disappears into the blue of the sky,
Until only the Yangtze and the horizon can be made out.
A farewell to Meng Haoran on the way to Guangling
By Li Bo (Li Bai)[4]

hiking
through the wilderness
creating a path
~ Wilderness

across the snowscape
the school chimes keep ringing
galumph, galumph
~ Snowscape

the ventilator
humming in the elevator
we remain silent
~ Ventilation

sea is still cold
no spring on the horizon
but in the dunes
~ Horizon

lost horizon
wandering the himalayas
for youth and wisdom
~ Horizon

the goldfinch feeds
on thistle seed and greenflies
that's my bird
~ Thistle

the terracotta
army keeps guarding
who knows?
~ Terracotta [5]

the tarantula
escaping from a carton
let's run, run, run
~ Tarantula

only a faint rustle
in the garden
but a loud smell
~ Skunk

no skunk
in my garden
listening to skin
~ Skunk [6]

a time to sow
a time to pull up clover
but let Ireland go on
~ Shamrock

the hacienda
on the sepia picture
beyond repair
~ Sepia

the sepia village
looking so nostalgic
but the poverty
~ Sepia

steam from my coffee
evanescing into the air
recycling memories
~ Recycle

in the ravine
a thatched cottage and ruddles
peace in the sun
~ Ravine

in the park
the puppies are running off
should have cell phones, too
~ Puppy

after the spring frosts
no fruits ripening
however the trees grow
~ Orchard

life in the woods
orang-utan and orang-orang
or just walden
~ Orangutan

Harry the steppenwolf
is nocturnal
one firefly more
~ Nocturnal

Links and Annotations:
[1] https://www.facebook.com/NaHaiWriMo  National Haiku Writing Month
[2] „To help with haiku fundamentals, please have a look at "Becoming a Haiku Poet" at https://www.graceguts.com/essays/becoming-a-haiku-poet. And please review the "Haiku Checklist" at https://www.graceguts.com/essays/haiku-checklist.
[3] For more on Veronica Marjon Van Bruggen look here: https://www.nahaiwrimo.com/meet-the-prompters/veronica-marjon-van-bruggen  [4] Li Bai (李白), I prefer the pronunciation Li Bo, is, alongside Du Fu (杜甫), the star of Tang poetry. I had sworn to myself, to read and translate more of his poems. 34 of his poems can be found in the compilation 300 poems of the Tang Dynasty (唐詩三百首). He lived from 701 to 762. I usually only take a few lines of the poems, but this poem is short enough, and I recently hung up a piece of calligraphy that Mr. He Ming-zhen (贺明真) had painted  for me 30 years ago in Xi'An (西安).
[5] Actually the terracotta army is only a part of the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (秦始皇), who died in 210 BC. The terracotta army has been excavated, but the actual grave is still untouched.
[6] Deborah Anne Dyer is better  known by the stage name Skin and lead singer of the band Skunk Anansie, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_(musician)  

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