Spring Kigo
List compiled from Yuki Teikei Haiku Society
Haiku Friends,
Morning, afternoon or evening, whichever it is for you.
These days it is very easy to find anything on the internet. Browsing is part of everyone’s life. I use Brave and DuckDuckGo, and I got a terrific list of Kigo to get us started. The best haiku come to me while I am walking with my Mom or jogging but, I can never remember the long list of words I read through three days ago. A couple of days ago, I looked up while waiting for my Mom to reach me; caught on languid walks, most of the time she holds on to my arm, but she let go of it and I stopped to wait for her. I looked up at the sky and I could feel the corners of my lips curving up. I was looking at a cloud shaped like the face and ears of Mickey Mouse. My partner told me that when he was little, he was in love with Minnie. I wanted to do a haiku to record the sight before me as I remembered this cute story which motivated me to purchase of a Minnie shirt last summer. I could not remember if the word cloud was on the Spring list! Panic! I forgot the lovely haiku I had composed in my mind. Cloud is on the spring list.
Minimising the frustration my unsound and troubled memory places upon me daily is a priority. I have devised a new strategy for that purpose. I pick 7 to 10 Kigo words each week. It is easier to remember a small list. Granted, one more thing to pay attention to but, also means that I will go through all the words on the list if I work through them. Sounds doable to me. There are millions of Kigo lists out there and of course you can source them as you wish, but I choose to use Yuki Teikei’s from the Haiku Society because the sections appealed to me - Season, Sky and Elements, Landscape, Human affairs, Animals and Plants. I will choose one or two words in each category to get us going this week. You can choose of course or write Popular haiku. I am committed to write Modern Haiku, but I still slip into Popular.
I do not intend to limit anybody with more rules, but I pondered on adding one more to myself. Having lived at a monastery for almost a year, I learned that is in structure, discipline and schedules that one finds freedom.
In time, you will find how much I love Bruce Lee and why. Just in case you feel pressure regarding my idea to add one more ingredient to our cultivation of three-line poems, I’ll remind us all of a great philosophical premise Bruce Lee used as guidance. I now present to you his guiding light, which has helped me many times.
Using No Way as Way. Having No Limitation as Limitation.
Welcome to Spring! Here are the ten Kigo for the week ahead.
April
Beginning of spring
Haze or thin mist
Spring breeze
flooded river
planting or sowing seeds
Easter
Kitten
artichoke
plum blossoms
And these are my haiku:
Web 3 - Substack found!
Alas! I can share writing
Spring Life welcoming
Walk with Mom, coffee
not speaking much - just respond
April Fool’s coming
Spring meeting, we two
Walk to me and hug me tight
Spring melting, we one.
Deep the connection
inhaling is most difficult
friendly spring virus
Plane, Mickey Mouse cloud
Blossoms spurt trees - my road
Lengthening days here
Comfy on the couch
Dinner on the table - delish!
Thank you - tired me
I forgot this day
importance - tranquility
can’t change - sow anew
Enjoy your week. Wishing you lots of fun composing haiku.
