Picture of the rainy day from my window
Today it's raining cats and dogs in Liverpool... and everyone knows we Brits love to moan about the weather 😂 This haiku expresses that feeling when spring is washing the grass with its life giving rain, when winter has just passed and we're stuck in a grey gun-metal limbo between the deep freeze and the promise of summer.
Although I'm engaging in the national pastime of complaining about the rain, the melancholy of spring downpours and dreary skies inspires reflection on the polarities of life. After all, without the doldrums, the energy and joy of summer sunshine would be all the less. You can't have a coin without two sides, the whole requires each side.
So it is with life.
This haiku attempts to capture what Japanese Haiku masters call Kigo (å£èªž):
an explicit or implicit reference to a season, that defines the time of the year in which the haiku is composed.
Along with Yūgen (幽玄):
a sense of wonder and mystery representing the state of mind produced by the inexplicable fascination of things, the feeling of an 'other' universe, full of mysterious unity.
The haiku follows the model of the Mizu No Oto - Haiku Contest, where a picture is used to prompt a haiku.
The Mizu No Oto - Haiku Contest (linked above) contains a fantastic tutorial on the traditional aesthetics and technique of haiku, I recommend checking it out for a master class in that form of poetry.
In this haiku I have tried to adhere to the ichibutsu jitate stylistic model, which consists of presenting one unified scene. The imagery in the poem meshes together to form a whole, in this case commenting on the scene in the video of my home town.
To read more about the aesthetics of true haiku, and the difference between haiku and senryu, please check out my post:
Haiku Vs Senryu - The Aesthetics of Form
All media used in this post is my own. If you have enjoyed this Haiku, please check out my other work on my homepage @raj808.
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