{"id":10015,"date":"2008-09-25T16:10:41","date_gmt":"2008-09-25T21:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/?p=10015"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:53:19","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:53:19","slug":"a-few-autumn-kigo-and-haiku","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2008\/09\/25\/a-few-autumn-kigo-and-haiku\/","title":{"rendered":"a few autumn kigo and haiku"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" K<\/em><\/strong>igo are “season words” (from the Japanese \u5b63\u8a9e, kingyo) — words or phrases that are generally associated with a particular season. In traditional Japanese haiku and linked poetry, kigo are used to give a verse its seasonal reference. (See the Wikipedia<\/a> explanation for more.)\u00a0 A long dispute<\/a> was waged in the Japanese and English-language haiku communities as to whether a poem can even be a haiku without a kigo. (Not that it matters much, but the f\/k\/a<\/em> Gang thinks it’s sufficient to have a reference to “Nature” in order to create a haiku.)<\/p>\n

For examples of kigo, check out “The five hundred essential Japanese season words<\/a>,” Selected by Kenkichi Yamamoto and translated by William Higginson and Kris Young Kondo.<\/p>\n

\"\" A<\/em><\/strong>s we wrote<\/a> a couple months ago, HaikuWorld hosts The Shiki Monthly Kukai<\/a> \u2014 a peer reviewed poetry contest open to everyone (full details here<\/a>).\u00a0 Each month, in the kigo portion of the contest, the moderators choose a kigo that participants must use in their submitted haiku.\u00a0 For the September 2008 kigo, the Shiki folks decided to choose the word “autumn” itself, rather than a particular word associated with autumn, as their kigo.<\/p>\n

Below are the poems submitted by four of our Honored Guests Poets for the September 2008 Shiki Kukai. (The full results can be found here now<\/a>, and here<\/a> next month and thereafter.)<\/p>\n

a field
\nof faceless pumpkins…
\nAutumn begins<\/p>\n

… by Ed Markowski (3rd place tie) … \"\"<\/p>\n

leaves raked
\na boy jumps
\ninto autumn<\/p>\n

…. by Roberta Beary<\/p>\n

a granddaughter
\nleads her through the corn maze
\nautumn deepens<\/p>\n

…. by tom painting<\/p>\n

Dad’s wedding ring
\nbegins to loosen . . .
\nautumn rain<\/p>\n

…. by Alice Frampton .. \"\" ..<\/p>\n

B<\/strong><\/em>elow, are haiku and senryu using season words that we usually associate with autumn — scarecrow, pumpkin, and apple.<\/p>\n

withering wind\u2026
\nthe scarecrow\u2019s jacket
\nfits<\/p>\n

harvest moon
\nwe move the scarecrow
\nto the front porch<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> … by Ed Markowski<\/a><\/p>\n

burning rubbish\u2013
\na scarecrow too
\ngoes up in smoke<\/p>\n

wind-bent in moonlight
\nthe scarecrow leans
\non a cane<\/p>\n

\n

the village dog
\nsuddenly disapproves…
\nthe scarecrow<\/p>\n

… by Kobayashi Issa<\/a>, translated by David G. Lanoue<\/p>\n

— click for a crop of than 50 scarecrow haiku by Master Issa<\/a> —<\/p>\n

itchy back
\nthe scarecrow
\nlends a hand<\/p>\n

….. by dagosan<\/em><\/p>\n

seeding time \"\"<\/a>
\nthe farmer dresses the same
\nas the scarecrow<\/p>\n

… by Jim Kacian – from The Scare Crow<\/em> (Red Moon Press 1999)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

.. The book <\/span>The Scare Crow<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a>: <\/em>A Collection of Haiku <\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>& Senryu<\/em> (Leroy Kanterman, Ed., <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Hiroake Sato, translator, <\/span>Red Moon Press<\/strong><\/span><\/a>,<\/span><\/span><\/span> 1999) has dozens of haiku featuring <\/span><\/span><\/span>the scarecrow, <\/span><\/span><\/span>along <\/span><\/span><\/span>with an essay \u201cThe Scarecrow and Our Haiku\u201d by John Stevenson.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

autumn sun\u2013
\nthe lawyer carries home
\na pumpkin<\/p>\n

… by Barry George<\/p>\n

dry leaves scattered
\nover roadside pumpkins
\nthe first hard frost<\/p>\n

…. by Matt Morden (Shiki Kukai, third place, Nov. 1997)<\/p>\n

perched on
\nthe sumo\u2019s belly \u2013
\none large pumpkin<\/p>\n

\"\" \u2026\u2026\u2026. by dagosan<\/em> – Nisqually Delta Review<\/em> (summer\/fall issue 2006)<\/p>\n

morning drizzle
\nthe shifting shape
\nof the apple sack<\/p>\n

… by paul m – frogpond<\/em> XXIX: 2 (2006)<\/p>\n

during discussion
\non the meaning of life . . . the crunch
\nof a student\u2019s apple<\/p>\n

. . .\u00a0 by George Swede from Almost Unseen<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

no rain for days \u2014
\na half-eaten apple taken away
\nfrom the fruit flies<\/p>\n

… by Gary Hotham – The Heron\u2019s Nest<\/em> (Sept. 2006) \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kigo are “season words” (from the Japanese \u5b63\u8a9e, kingyo) — words or phrases that are generally associated with a particular season. In traditional Japanese haiku and linked poetry, kigo are used to give a verse its seasonal reference. (See the Wikipedia explanation for more.)\u00a0 A long dispute was waged in the Japanese and English-language haiku […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-haiku-or-senryu"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-2Bx","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10015"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12169,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10015\/revisions\/12169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}