Haiku for National Haiku Writing Month – October 2024 First 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]. Our daily writing prompter has Rowan Beckett Minor [3], doing so for the second time. Thanks a lot, Rowan!

疏松影落空壇靜，
細草香閒小洞幽。
何用別尋方外去？
人間亦自有丹丘。
同題仙游觀。
韓翃。
The shadows of the pine trees sweep across the empty platform,
While the scent of grasses wafts into the meditation cave.
What would be the point of seeking peace elsewhere in the world,
When there is already a place of immortals among humans?
On an inscription at the Temple of Wandering Immortals
Han Hong [4]

halloween
burning the midnight oil
stories from the crypt
~ Midnight

casting votes
into ugly ballot boxes
please phoenix arise
~ Vote

rotten movies
asylum, crypt or vault
must watch
~ Asylum

contributing
money to your family
but without love ...
~ Contribute

don't toy
with that doll and needle
the voodoo priest shouts
~ Toy/Doll

the trees shed leaves
conserving energy
we shed tears
~ Energy

some words need
to be carved in stone
but not haiku
~ Carve

in the garden
chirping cicadas
social media, too
~ Media

after halloween
or a visit to the fun house
I avoid mirrors
~ Funhouse

no BBQ
silence in the neighborhood
tumbleweeds though
~ Community

seeming to grow
out of the cinema screen
Count Dracula's teeth
~ Teeth

bribing the law
is against the law
as the law then fails
~ Law

CSI discussing
the forms of blood splatters
no splatter movie though
~ Splatter

lighted
with safety matches
the burning house
~ Safety

the shops brim
with halloween costumes
no trick or treat though
~ Costume

this world loves
watching conflicts
not having them
~ Conflict

Links and Annotations:
[1] National Haiku Writing Month https://www.facebook.com/NaHaiWriMo  
[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] Meet the prompters: https://www.nahaiwrimo.com/meet-the-prompters/rowan-beckett-minor  
[4] Han Hong is a poet of the Tang Dynasty who is represented with three poems in the compilation 300 Poems of the Tang Dynasty (唐詩三百首). We do not know his birth and death dates, only that he successfully passed the imperial examination in 754 and was graduated to Jinshi (進士 - the highest title). He was one of the ten talents of the Dali region (大理). 166 of his poems were handed down in the compilation Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty (全唐詩). The Qing Emperor Kang Xi (清康熙) commissioned it in 1705 and the anthology was published in 1706. It contains 48,900 poems by 2,200 poets in over 900 volumes.

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