To kick off WIZ’s Spring Poetry Runoff, we’re starting a haiku chain. This is a non-competitive (that is, not part of the poetry contest), everybody-can-participate activity, just for fun–a songfest for many voices.
A haiku is a classical Japanese poetical form, usually 17 syllables all in a single line in Japanese, but I understand that there are longer and shorter forms. In English, haiku often take the form of one short line of 5 syllables, a long line of 7 syllables, and a short line of 5 syllables, but there are many ways–take your pick. I’ve misplaced all my haiku notes, but you can find out more here or here. (For fun, check out the “annoying haiku” at the first website.)
I asked greenfrog to start off the chain, and he graciously provided. There’s no deadline for this activity. It runs as long as it runs. So if you feel inclined to sing spring up in company with other voices, please–add a link of verse to the chain.
Sunlight touches tree
tops; to the chick, the yolk gives
Itself unmeasured.
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greenfrog, also known as Sean, is a piquant concoction of Mormonism, Buddhism, and Lawyerism living in the Denver, Colorado area. He describes himself as an amphibious creature who “breathes Mormon air and swims Buddhist waters, both quite happily.”
In the leafy tree
tops the birds, oh the
birds sing good morning
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Ack–that’s a failure to correctly count on my fingers. Never mind.
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This time I think I’ve counted right:
With yolks unmeasured,
Pound cake, strawberry-bedecked
Falls flat. Chicks decline.
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Cattail swords pierce earth
Then water, then sky; seeking
Space to breathe and fruit.
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Tiny, purple-green
Rosettes print peppermint oil
On the lightest touch.
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Young peach leaves budding,
Branches stretching in sunlight,
Waking for spring.
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