Haiku for National Haiku Writing Month – Febuary 2025 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 this month is Michael Dylan Welch[3], NaHaiWriMo founder has been prompting for us for us every year during February since 2011. Thank you very much, Michael!

山石犖确行徑微，
黃昏到寺蝙蝠飛。
升堂坐階新雨足，
芭蕉葉大梔子肥。
山石。
韓愈。
The narrow path ran between the rugged rocks of the mountain.
At dusk, as the bats already were flying, I reached the temple.
The air was fresh after the rain, I sat on the steps of the hall
Near the huge banana leaves and the fully rounded gardenias.
Mountain rocks
Han Yu [4]

the mountain range
illuminated by the moon
chasing the clouds
~ Range

sorry, I'm enjoying
my neighbor's free range eggs -
out of range for you
~ Range [5]

the alpine
cyclamen on the windowsill
granny's mind travel
~ Alpine



sliding on
mongolian pistes
no limits, though
~ Piste



it's snowing again
the piste looks white
less than an inch
~ Piste

early morning
at the pinnacles
torn rocks and tyre
~ Pinnacle

above the clouds
even the highest peaks
sing with the wind
~ Peak

serene scenery
hard rock and hard names
or the andes
~ Andes

in the ski resort
they keep the runs free of trees
for avalanches
~ Avalanche

snow and again snow
on greenland's glaciers
but the peace there
~ Glacier

above the clouds
hiking along the ridge
thoughts and views
~ Ridge

sierra nevada
reflected in the lake
life casts stones
~ Sierra Nevada

the glacier gone
still seeing its end moraine
no tomb stones
~ Moraine

eyjafjallajökull
vomiting ashes
no contrails
~ Volcano [6]

the summit club
to sum it up
hopes and failures
~ Summit

the hidden spring
between mountain and forest
what's keeping you?  
~ Mountain

past the base camp
still a wonderful scene
then garbage and corpses
~ Everest





deer running down
the slopes of mount everest
without a sherpa
~ Everest

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] Michael Dylan Welch. NaHaiWriMo founder and daily writing prompter for February 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025. https://www.nahaiwrimo.com/meet-the-prompters/michael-dylan-welch
[4] Han Yu (韓愈) lived from 768 to 824 - so we are in the 1201st year of his death. Han Yu was a rigorous advocate of Confucianism and opposed Buddhism as well as Daoism. He is considered the greatest prose poet of the Tang Dynasty and is represented with just one poem in the anthology 300 Poems of the Tang Period (唐詩三百首). On the other hand, 272 of his poems were included in the compilation Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty (全唐詩).
[5] Variant: enjoying / neighbor's free range eggs - / out of range for you // ~ Range
[6] Variant: eyjafjallajökull / coughing ashes / no contrails // ~ Volcano

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