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You are here: Home / Photo Blogging / On The Road / Haiku / On The Road – Munira – The Seasons

On The Road – Munira – The Seasons

by WaterGirl|  November 4, 20225:00 am| 26 Comments

This post is in: Haiku, On The Road, Photo Blogging

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On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.

From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.

Submit Your Photos

Munira

Traditionally, the season in which a haiku is written is an essential element. In fact, in Japanese, each haiku contains a particular word (called a kigo) which indicates the season. (You can find a list of some of these words online.) As with the other traditional elements of haiku, we modern western writers are less fussy about insisting on the kigo, but the seasonal cycle still plays an important part in our haiku writing.

In this post, I’ve picked haiku and photos that specifically relate to each of the four seasons. Some of them mention the season by name and others contain a kigo. When I finished collecting the haiku, I realized that I had three poems for summer and winter and only two for spring and autumn. I decided that made sense because summer and winter are the extreme seasons. They both begin with the solstice (the longest day and the longest night). The difference between light and dark is more extreme as is the temperature. Spring and autumn are the fluid seasons. They each begin with the equinox when light and dark are in balance. They are transitional seasons, carrying us from one extreme to the next.

The cycle of the seasons mimics the cycle of our own lives so we begin today with spring, the season of birth and rebirth, of flowers budding and blossoming, of leaves returning to the trees. And we end with winter, the season when nature turns inward, when vegetation seems to die and we begin and end the active part of our days in darkness.

On The Road - Munira - The Seasons 9
Lac Brome, QCMay 7, 2014

shy spring
the ferns
in prayer position

Haiku Canada Review – October 2016, Volume 1

On The Road - Munira - The Seasons 8
Lac Brome, QCMay 3, 2014

May comes up
through
last year’s leaves

On The Road - Munira - The Seasons 7
Bellingham, WAAugust 11, 2022

what we can imagine—
all the shades
of blackberry

On The Road - Munira - The Seasons 6
Bellingham, WAJuly 3, 2022

world view—
through a bite-sized hole
in a summer leaf

On The Road - Munira - The Seasons 5
Bellingham, WAJune 22, 2022

white roses
gone wild
the times we live in

On The Road - Munira - The Seasons 4
Bellingham, WANovember 17, 2020

gray skies—
so many
Novembers

New England Letters #102, November 14, 2019

On The Road - Munira - The Seasons 3
Lac Brome, QCNovember 4, 2011

autumn wind
I blow the fire
into being

Frogpond, Winter, 2014
http://neverendingstoryhaikutanka.blogspot.ca/feb. 22, 2017
New England Letters #100, September 15, 2019

On The Road - Munira - The Seasons 2
Lac Brome, QCJanuary 1, 2015

pine needles on snow
the lined faces
of the old ones

New England Letters #117 February 14, 2021

On The Road - Munira - The Seasons 1
Lac Brome, QCDecember 29, 2018

beech leaves cling
to winter trees
harder now to let go

On The Road - Munira - The Seasons
Seattle, WAFebruary 4, 2019

snow falling
past streetlights
the city pauses

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Reader Interactions

26Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    November 4, 2022 at 6:08 am

    That’s so lovely.

  2. 2.

    p.a.

    November 4, 2022 at 6:53 am

    👏👏👏

  3. 3.

    Benw

    November 4, 2022 at 7:00 am

    These are great!

  4. 4.

    MagdaInBlack

    November 4, 2022 at 7:02 am

    I always enjoy these. Thank you.

  5. 5.

    scribbler

    November 4, 2022 at 7:03 am

    Wonderful.  Less is more, isn’t it?

  6. 6.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    November 4, 2022 at 7:13 am

    What a beautiful thing to wake up to. Thank you

  7. 7.

    sab

    November 4, 2022 at 7:15 am

    Lovely pictures, and what a nice way to tie them together. Thank you.

  8. 8.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 4, 2022 at 8:01 am

    Beautiful.

  9. 9.

    The Fat Kate Middleton

    November 4, 2022 at 8:24 am

    Thank you so much.

  10. 10.

    WaterGirl

    November 4, 2022 at 9:23 am

    I love your haikus so much, always a treat, a quiet moment of beauty to start the day.

  11. 11.

    Albatrossity

    November 4, 2022 at 9:28 am

    Perfect. Thank you!

  12. 12.

    Yutsano

    November 4, 2022 at 9:45 am

    I especially love the simple truth of the Seattle haiku. Also interesting since you were probably stuck when you took that picture!

  13. 13.

    Snarlymon

    November 4, 2022 at 9:46 am

    The haikus really enhance the appreciation of the photos

  14. 14.

    WaterGirl

    November 4, 2022 at 9:48 am

    I hope some folks are putting together submissions for on the road!

  15. 15.

    Madeleine

    November 4, 2022 at 10:19 am

    Thank you.

  16. 16.

    Oregon Girl

    November 4, 2022 at 10:23 am

    Wonderful! I love haiku. A sweet beginning to my morning.

  17. 17.

    munira

    November 4, 2022 at 10:28 am

    @scribbler: Yes less is more. You said it well.

  18. 18.

    munira

    November 4, 2022 at 10:29 am

    @Yutsano: I was at my sister’s contemplating driving down to California, a trip that was postponed for several days. But it was so beautiful I didn’t mind.

  19. 19.

    Geminid

    November 4, 2022 at 10:35 am

    @WaterGirl: Maybe Quinerly will give us some pics from her trip to Southeast Utah. She’ll travel some spectacular country, and the town of Bluff sounds neat.

  20. 20.

    Mom Says I*m Handsome

    November 4, 2022 at 11:19 am

    I love the idea of kigo.  So much nuance in this art form.

  21. 21.

    SkyBluePink

    November 4, 2022 at 12:11 pm

    Very Lovely

  22. 22.

    munira

    November 4, 2022 at 12:13 pm

    Thanks everyone for your kind comments. It’s a pleasure to share my photos and haiku with you.

  23. 23.

    JanieM

    November 4, 2022 at 12:27 pm

    “so many novembers” — especially evocative for me.

    Thanks for words+pictures. They fit.

  24. 24.

    way2blue

    November 4, 2022 at 12:59 pm

    Lovely.  More please…

  25. 25.

    munira

    November 4, 2022 at 2:55 pm

    @way2blue: All in good time.

  26. 26.

    John S Green

    November 8, 2022 at 2:14 am

    Hello Munira,

    Lovely presentation, as usual. My two favorite haiku are:

    1.

    shy spring

    the ferns

    in prayer position

    2.

     

    pine needles on snow

    the lined faces

    of the old ones

     

    Cheers,

    John

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