Haiku for National Haiku Writing Month – January 2025 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]. Our daily writing prompter this month has been Paul David Mena [3], prompting for us for the fifth time (previously in June 2011, March 2015, December 2020, and September 2022). Thank you very much, Paul! It has been fun using anagrams. I always checked and sometimes there were still anagrams, which I used – these are underlined in the text.

鳴箏金粟柱，
素手玉房前。
欲得周郎顧，
時時誤拂弦。
聽箏。
李端。
Her zither chirps from the shiny frets,
As she gently strokes the strings outside the Jade Room.
To attract Mr. Zhou's attention,
Now and then she deliberately plays a wrong note.
When listening to the Zither
Li Duan [4]

KA-BOOM!
the first grenade off range
still we're deranged
~ Derange and Grenade

altering
a triangle of flowers
haircut, too
~ Relating and Altering 

once without diapers
you don't use the word
for a while once
On second thought:
once past diapers
you don't use the word
for a while
~ Diapers and Praised

warm spring breeze
sitting amidst dandelions
my senator lounge
~ Senator and Treason

trodden terrain
after retrain and retrain
the trainer's adage
~ Trainer and Retrain

I'm a realist
saltier convenience foods
should be dumped
~ Retails and Saltier

hors d'oeuvres
not a staple food
but yummy
~ Plates and Staple

this winter
the palest sunrise
missing you
~ Palest and Pastel

a brick in the wall
now plastered and painted
... orange!
~ Plaster and Stapler

violet and green
stained fingers
red cabbage and ink
~ Stained and Sainted

nobody
detains the felon
instead he dresses up
~ Detains and Instead

winter is
the big sleep
but not the end
~ Elapse and Asleep

walking into
tangier's granite inn – and:
oops, I did it again
~ Tangier and Tearing

south southwest
on turquoise waters
not minding ports
~ Sport and Ports

still snow
between the green patches
but daisies dare
~ Dear and Dare

alert * alert * alert
later
oh, too late
~ Alert and Alter

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] https://www.nahaiwrimo.com/meet-the-prompters/paul-david-mena
[4] Li Duan (李端) probably lived from 743-787, but this is not entirely certain, as other sources give 743-782. He was a poet of the Tang Dynasty. He is only represented with this poem in the anthology 300 Poems of the Tang Period (唐詩三百首). On the other hand, more than 250 of his poems were included in the compilation Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty (全唐詩). In the 300 poems, there is a poem by Lu Lun (盧綸) entitled Farewell to Li Duan (送李端).

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