Showing posts with label kigo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kigo. Show all posts

Saturday, May 01, 2010

May kigo list for Southern California


The Season

end of spring
spring morning
spring rain
spring storm
spring wind
crisp morning
gray May


Mountains, Fields and Ocean

fresh grass
spring fields
green hills
wildflower fields
trail work
thickened bermuda grass


Flowers and Plants

spent lilacs
first cherries
poppies
mustard
periwinkles
jacaranda blossoms
green fig leaves
bougainvillea
onion lily spikes
star jasmine perfume
roses
succulent blooms
budding gardenia
green hydrangea panicles
spiky shoots of ornamental ginger
late blooming wisteria
aloe vera spikes
cymbidium orchids finish blooming
new stems
buddingCanary Island date palms – fruiting stems
staking tomatoes
lettuce bolting (also cabbage, broccoli)
asparagus shoots


Sky and Heavens

flower moon
warm spring breeze
morning fog
spring sky
spring constellations
changing skies


Birds and Animals

palm rats (newborns squealing)
cut-worms
snails
lady bugs
sparrows
dogs have stopped shedding
baby ground squirrels
baby Island Foxes
chirping baby birds
crows eating baby birds
baby rabbits
baby opossums
turkey vulture nests
Nuthatch nests


Human Affairs

Mother’s Day
Renaissance Faire
Memorial Day
Cinco de Mayo
midseason baseball
French Open
shorts
spring dresses
sandals
wedding invitations
graduations
allergy season
wind chimes
kites
baby strollers
IRS refunds

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

April kigo for Southern California

From the Southern California Haiku Study Group

The Season


spring
spring rain
spring storm
spring wind
warmer days

Sky and Heavens


pink moon
spring sky
spring constellations: Virgo, Leo, Ursa Major


Mountains, Fields and Ocean


snow run-off
spring fields
green hills
wildflower fields
trail work

Flowers and Plants



Easter Lilies
wisteria
young leaves
cherry blossoms
crab apple
blossoms
Our Lord's Candle
sky lupine
red bud
trumpet tree
Birds and Animals

swallows
baby rabbits
deer fawn
harbor seal pups
rattlesnakes
nesting birds:
Western gulls
terns
white-throated swift
grebes
wood ducks
California
quail
woodpeckers
Human Affairs
shorts
spring
dresses
spring break
planting
vegetables
Easter
Festival of Books
National Poetry Month
baseball
season starts
vacation plans

Thank you Debbie!

Friday, March 12, 2010

Sunday, August 16, 2009

moonflower kigo

.
Surprise!
a moonflower fell -
midnight sound
.............. ......Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902)

The moonflower, Ipomoea alba, is a kigo for late spring / early summer. Its large, fragrant, round blossoms are revealed after dusk in a dramatically rapid fashion, often seeming to almost spring open.

Related to the morning glory, it is native to tropical and sub-tropical regions of North and South America. The large 4-5 inch flowers range in color from white to pink, and are often cultivated as a garden ornamental. In regions like Florida, it can become an invasive twining pest, choking out other plants.

The pre-Colombian Mesoamericans civilizations used the high sulfur content of the moonflower plant to vulcanize latex from the Catilla elastica tree into rubber balls used in arena sports.

Here is a moon flower opening in real time, a mere 72 seconds:


Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Higginson on kigo and tradition

The rationale behind season words is tradition, not personal or local experience. It makes sense to add certain items to a season word list according to local custom, such as holidays, unique cultural features, and particular weather phenomena or creature-behaviors unique to a specific region, provided they are included at times when poets have in fact noticed them and writen about them. But this is not always the case for phenomena of more or less universal experience. ...

...The overriding factor here is that, unless one is in a very distinctly different climatic zone than mid-temperate central Japan, on which the Japanese saijiki is nominally based, and the phenomenon in question is already recorded in a common Japanese saijiki, then *millions of poets* already relate to it that way.

--William Higginson

from the World Kigo Database:
http://worldkigodatabase.blogspot.com/2006/11/wind-chimes-fuurin.html

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

kigo: Southern California summer wildflowers

Deborah Kolodji: Bush Monkey Flower, Fish Canyon, 5/31/09


From Debbie Kolodji, near Los Angeles, over Memorial Day weekend:

As a kigo update, here is a list of the wildflowers in bloom yesterday on the Fish Canyon hike:

  • California milkweed (just starting to bloom)
  • clarkia
  • wild mustard
  • prickley pear cactus
  • Our Lord's Candle (yucca)
  • blue dicks (at end of bloom period - I saw only one plant blooming - in March when I did the hike, they were blooming everywhere)
  • Indian pink
  • goldenstar
  • California buckwheat
  • cliff aster
  • golden yarrow
  • wild morning glory
  • sticky monkeyflower
  • bush monkey flower
  • elegant clarkia
  • caterpiller phaelia
  • Matilija poppy
  • common sunflower
  • western wallflower
  • white yarrow
  • California thistle
  • California blackberry
  • laurel sumac
  • dodder
  • Calfornia everlasting
  • leafy daisy

Thank you Debbie!

Visit Debbie Kolodji's Fickr site for more photos.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

4 season Japanese saijiki

The SHIKI IE Haiku Salon (from Japan):
a fairly extensive list of traditional kigo, organized by season and type of reference. Includes Japanese terms.

The most useful kigo resources I've come across are:

World Kigo Database
World Kigo Parking Lot (Yahoo email group)

both courtesy of Gabi Greve.

Sunday, March 01, 2009

SoCalHaiku Study Group March Kigo List

March Kigo List
for the Southern California Region

The Season
spring
early spring
Daylight Savings Time
spring rain
spring wind
warmer days

Sky and Heavens
worm moon
spring sky
vernal equinox

Mountains, Fields and Ocean
snow run-off
spring fields
green hills
wildflower fields

Flowers and Plants
cherry blossom
apricot blossom
camellias
daffodils, jonquils
Dutch iris
spring wildflowers
ceanothus/California lilac
California poppy
jade plant
teddy bear cholla
octotillo
paint brush
bladderpod
Joshua tree

Birds and Animals
lizards
coyote pups
wren song
breeding plumage
nesting birds:
barn swallow
American robin
green heron
wren
song sparrow
American coot
black Phoebe
California towhee
wrentit
raven
scrub jay


Human Affairs

spring cleaning
college acceptance/rejection letters
spring break
city election
St. Patrick's Day – green beer, shamrocks
St. Joseph's
Day – St. Joseph's Table
Lent
Purim
Chinese lantern festival

courtesy of Deborah Kolodgi and the Southern California Haiku Study Group

Saturday, January 20, 2007

seasonal moon names

Found at the Farmers' Almanac site:

• Full Wolf Moon - January Amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. Thus, the name for January's full Moon. Sometimes it was also referred to as the Old Moon, or the Moon After Yule. Some called it the Full Snow Moon, but most tribes applied that name to the next Moon.

• Full Snow Moon - February Since the heaviest snow usually falls during this month, native tribes of the north and east most often called February's full Moon the Full Snow Moon. Some tribes also referred to this Moon as the Full Hunger Moon, since harsh weather conditions in their areas made hunting very difficult.

• Full Worm - March Moon As the temperature begins to warm and the ground begins to thaw, earthworm casts appear, heralding the return of the robins. The more northern tribes knew this Moon as the Full Crow Moon, when the cawing of crows signaled the end of winter; or the Full Crust Moon, because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing at night. The Full Sap Moon, marking the time of tapping maple trees, is another variation. To the settlers, it was also known as the Lenten Moon, and was considered to be the last full Moon of winter.

• Full Pink Moon - April This name came from the herb moss pink, or wild ground phlox, which is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. Other names for this month's celestial body include the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and among coastal tribes the Full Fish Moon, because this was the time that the shad swam upstream to spawn.

• Full Flower Moon - May In most areas, flowers are abundant everywhere during this time. Thus, the name of this Moon. Other names include the Full Corn Planting Moon, or the Milk Moon.

• Full Strawberry Moon - June This name was universal to every Algonquin tribe. However, in Europe they called it the Rose Moon. Also because the relatively short season for harvesting strawberries comes each year during the month of June . . . so the full Moon that occurs during that month was christened for the strawberry!

• The Full Buck Moon - July is normally the month when the new antlers of buck deer push out of their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. It was also often called the Full Thunder Moon, for the reason that thunderstorms are most frequent during this time. Another name for this month's Moon was the Full Hay Moon.

• Full Sturgeon Moon - August The fishing tribes are given credit for the naming of this Moon, since sturgeon, a large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water, were most readily caught during this month. A few tribes knew it as the Full Red Moon because, as the Moon rises, it appears reddish through any sultry haze. It was also called the Green Corn Moon or Grain Moon.

• Full Harvest Moon - September This is the full Moon that occurs closest to the autumn equinox. In two years out of three, the Harvest Moon comes in September, but in some years it occurs in October. At the peak of harvest, farmers can work late into the night by the light of this Moon. Usually the full Moon rises an average of 50 minutes later each night, but for the few nights around the Harvest Moon, the Moon seems to rise at nearly the same time each night: just 25 to 30 minutes later across the U.S., and only 10 to 20 minutes later for much of Canada and Europe. Corn, pumpkins, squash, beans, and wild rice the chief Indian staples are now ready for gathering.

• Full Hunter's Moon - October With the leaves falling and the deer fattened, it is time to hunt. Since the fields have been reaped, hunters can easily see fox and the animals which have come out to glean.

• Full Beaver Moon - November This was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. Another interpretation suggests that the name Full Beaver Moon comes from the fact that the beavers are now actively preparing for winter. It is sometimes also referred to as the Frosty Moon.

• The Full Cold Moon; or the Full Long Nights Moon - December During this month the winter cold fastens its grip, and nights are at their longest and darkest. It is also sometimes called the Moon before Yule. The term Long Night Moon is a doubly appropriate name because the midwinter night is indeed long, and because the Moon is above the horizon for a long time. The midwinter full Moon has a high trajectory across the sky because it is opposite a low Sun.

Friday, January 12, 2007

new kigo

sunset
the freshly whitewashed fence
bathed in pink

I think fence painting could be a summer kigo: no snow, rain, wind; plenty of heat to dry the paint -- a Saturday afternoon's work... Tom Sawyer, etc.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

kiku kigo and more...

Gabi Greve has sent me a link to her kigo discussion on kiku. There are many rich links and references there.
To collect the dew on the chrysanthemum petals and drink it would bring you long life (chooju).… As an auspicious symbol of long life (kisshoo monyoo) the chrysanthemum was used for many decoration, on embroydered kimono and as sweets (wagashi). The Chinese boy Kikujidoo drank the dew of the chrysanthemum and lived to gain immortality without ageing, or rather to the ripe age of 800 years. This legend was later incorporated into a famous Noh drama.

white chrysanthemum
, shiragiku
yellow chrysanthemum
, kigiku
fine weather to enjoy chrysanthemums
, kikubiyori
crowded chrysanthemums
, rangiku
home full of chrysanthemums
, kiku no yado
time for the chrysanthemums
, kikudoki
dew on chrysanthemums
, kiku no tsuyu
Long Life Chrysanthemum, Manjuugiku
"live to see 1000 generations," Chiyomigusa


Following a thread, I wound up at the Yahoo Group WorldKigoLibrary, an invaluable reading resource, also curated by Gabi. You don't need to be a member to access the messages. Especially noted:

A Conversation with the Poet Hoshinaga Fumio from Modern Haiku, 35:3, Autumn 2004, pp. 27-45.

.......
twenty billion light-years of perjury...your blood type is "B"

Blood type B is rare in Japan; Type A is happier, but Type B carries a sense of melancholy.

blood type A
why am I unhappy
winter sparrow
..........--Billie Dee

See also Hoshinaga Fumio:Selected Haiku from Kumaso-Ha from the same issue, pp. 46-55

..........the spring tree--
..........I climb until I can
..........see the war

Arigatougozaimasu Gabi sensei! (((

Monday, November 27, 2006

more November kigo for So. Calif.

courtesy of Deborah Kolodgi at SoCalHaiku
seedpods
missing lizards
fallen flannelbush seeds
fallen pinecones
dried Manzanita fruits
scarlet monkeyflower leaves
golden Lumbardy poplars
yellow cottonwood leaves
footsteps crunching the trail
fallen seedpods

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Late Autumn Kigo for Southern California

courtesy of Deborah Koladji, SoCalHaiku Group:

  • The Season
  • late autumn
    autumn wind
    autumn rain
    shorter days
    colder nights
    standard time
    first rain
    Indian summer
    morning fog
  • Sky and Heavens
    Leonids (Nov 17-19 )
    Cassiopeia
    Pisces
    spiral galaxy
    Hunter's Moon
  • Mountains and Fields
    dry fields
    dead grass
    falling leaves
    harvesting
  • Plants and Flowers
    pumpkins
    squashes
    gourds
    Indian corn
    floss silk tree (blooming)
    cranberries
    Hong-Kong orchid tree (blooming)
    gingko trees
    nuts
    corn stubble
    root vegetables
    chrysanthemums
  • Birds and Animals
    monarch migration
    horned grebe
    red-throated loon
    common loon
    white pelican
    Canada goose
    white-crowned sparrow
    gray whale migration (starts end of month)
  • Human affairs
    Thanksgiving
    Veteran's Day
    Election Day
    football
    start of basketball season
    Christmas catalogs
    turkey dinner
    pumpkin pie
    waterfowl game season
    college midterms
    All Soul's Day
    El Día de los Muertos

Saturday, July 01, 2006

SoCalHaiku July Kigo List

The Season

summer
100 degrees
intense heat
too hot to go out
long days
dog days
wildfire season

Mountains, Fields and Ocean

yellow fields
smog hidden mountains
dried-up creeks
kelp forest

Flowers and Plants

Jasmine
century plant
stalks
hydrangea
plums
apricots
geraniums
grapes
white
peaches
hibiscus
clover
blossoms
lavender
grapefruit
basil
rosemary
parsley
sage
roses
summer
herbs
daisies

Sky and Heavens

Dog star
milky way
river of stars
tanabana
summer breeze
morning fog
summer sky
summer constellations
short shadows

Birds and Animals

hummingbirds
baby raccoons
seagulls
butterflies
young gulls
jellyfish
dolphins
brown pelicans
wasps
tree frogs
orange lizards

Human Affairs

Fourth of July
fireworks
Hollywood Bowl
picnics
beach outings
beach house
air conditioning
fans
summer Shakespeare
kite surfers
wind surfers
sunscreen

With thanks to Deborah Kolodgi