Haiku for National Haiku Writing Month – July 2023

 

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 13th year. [1] I enjoy writing to the prompts on Facebook. Here are some interesting links: [2]. The prompter for July 2023 has been Sandi Ivey, who prompted for the first time. First half of July I had been travelling to very remote parts in Mongolia [3].

客從東方來，
衣上灞陵雨。
長安遇馮著。
韋應物。
The guest has come from the east,
The rain from Baling is still on the clothes.
About the reception of Feng Zhu in Chang An
By Wei Yingwu [4]

shreds of papyrus
what a nice puzzle
torn up love letter
~ papyrus

fallen apples
my SIL cooks them to pulp
no fiction at all
~ pulp

the beauty of a tree
full of ripe apples
pick your apple quickly
~ apple

chewing on sugarcane
not healthy
but so sweet
~ sugarcane [5]

thinking of hydrogen -
zeppelin, Mark Watney
and >ka-boom!!!<
~ hydrogen

squirrels and jays bury acorns
let's enjoy the growing oak forest
~ oak

looking alike
hemp and kenaf leaves
but I don't smoke
~ kenaf

after the wheat harvest
the straw bales keep waiting
for Godot
~ wheat

banana flower
looking at intriguing purple
before chewing
~ banana

enough oxygen
for Paula Schultz
to leave the grave
~ oxygen

this endless rope
I always cut it
too short
~ rope

a hedge of beech wood
sun on the daisies  
present and present
~ wood

yellow linings
on summer's leaves
we all age
~ leaves

only sometimes
fresh linen smells
of childhood
~ linen

a breeze brushing
the dry leaves of the birches
still alive  
~ birch

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] Last blogpost on this trip: A Ceremony at the Lakefront of Üüreg Nuur
https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2023/07/a-ceremony-at-lakefront-of-uureg-nuur.html  
[4] I have to admit that I have read very little by Wei Yingwu so far, because 12 of his poems have been included in the compilation 300 Poems of the Tang Dynasty (唐詩三百首). He lived about 737-791/792. Chang An (長安) was the capital of China at the time. Baling (灞陵) is a place name, but even my old edition of the 300 Tang Dynasty Poems  only says that Baling was east of Chang An, which is no surprise given the poem's first line. Chang An was rebuilt several times, today's name is Xi'an (西安).
[5] I have in mind a scene from the movie Jungle Child (German: Dschungelkind) in which two girls share sugarcane. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungle_Child_(film) 
PS. Mark Stuart Farrar advised me: "Lothar, I wonder if this would be tighter if you removed "like a" from the third line?" Thank you for this good advise, I changed the haiku from: "shreds of papyrus  / what a nice puzzle / like a torn up love letter".

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