Haiku for National Haiku Writing Month – April 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]. The NaHaiWriMo daily writing prompter for April 2024, National Poetry Month, is Rick Daddario, who is prompting for the second time (previously in October 2023).

空園白露滴，
孤壁野僧鄰。
寄臥郊扉久，
何門致此身？
灞上秋居。
馬戴。
The empty garden shines with dewdrops,
Lonely behind the wall is my neighbor, a vagabond monk.
I've lived outside the city long enough
Through which gate does my life lead me?
The Autumn Hut in Bashang
By Ma Dai [3]

behind the water-
fall rushing and gushing
happy faces
~ Waterfall

at the shore
small sandy feet on planks
and a popsicle
~ Childhood

dirty orange sky
with clouds in charcoal drawing
some birds twitter, though
~ Orange

spring, sunshine
walking on the carpet or dandelions
just a dream
~ Carpet

raking
the bed for the peas
moonraker
~ Rake

in the shed
the scarecrows wake up
but sadly no coffee
~ Shed

some gravel now
on the mud road
civilization
~ Gravel

MAD or Peanuts
The Fifth Wave & Marvel
and no Nobel prize yet
~ Cartoon

Bogumil and Serge
this California feeling
the heat is on
~ Heat

after the rain
the snails come out
me too
~ Snail

suddenly the sun
emerges out of the haze
welcome spring morning
~ Hazy

punching holes
a year long for confetti
enjoying carnival
~ Confetti

melting snow
on the grass slope
even the cat slips
~ Slippery

humming bees
throughout the village
catkins opening
~ Countryside

so sweet
rock candy in the mouth
and silent
~ Candy

thinking of
the happy and innocent time
then it's fool's gold
~ Pyrite

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] We know very little about Ma Dai (馬戴). There are only two entries on Wikipedia, one in Chinese [3a] an one in Ukrainian [3b]. He probably lived from 799-869. Two of his poems are included in the compilation “300 Poems of the Tang Period”. Bashang (灞上) was probably to the east of Xi'an (西安). Maybe where there is a tea garden today, but then even about 1200 years ago it wouldn't have been very much in the wilderness. However, about 175 of his poems are included in the compilation “Complete Tang Poems” (全唐詩) from 1705. This compilation, like the well-known dictionary (康熙字典), goes back to the Emperor Kangxi (康熙帝), who lived from 1654-1722.
何門 probably means 何年; an error in the original. However, I translated gate  and not year.
[3a] https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hant/%E9%A9%AC%E6%88%B4
[3b] https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%B0_%D0%94%D0%B0%D0%B9


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