Carpe Diem #214, Hatsugatsuo (first Bonito) - Plus Sensational Haiku Wednesday

Kristjaan explains:

During the Edo period, Kamakura was famous for the first bonito to be fished at the beaches of the inlay. The very first ones were offered at Hachimangu with prayers for a good fishing season.

In newer years, the first fish of the year landing on the beach of Kamakura was called hatsugatsuo and offered to the deities.

Update:
The SHW prompt for today is Marine Life.
I'll double up on memes this time with entries 1 and 3.
 

~ 1 ~

early bird gets worm
worm on hook gets bonito
first things first

~ 2 ~

first things highly prized
that's why virgins get tossed
into volcanoes

~ 3 ~

moose and goose
sit by the river side
watch the salmon run

~ 4 ~

first summer spider
in our house - my wife calls me
to come and kill it*

~ 5 ~

sacrificed spider
she doesn't pay the mortgage
moment of non-zen

~~:~~:~~

* in fairness i should point out that i could reach it and she couldn't

this is what chivalry comes down to

in a time without dragons

Carpe Diem #214

 

Sensational Haiku Wednesday

CHINOOK

great king of salmon
though you grow in the ocean
river calls you home

Sensatinal Haiku Wednesday - Continuity

at the equinox
winter gives way to springtime
the circle of life

Three Word + Sensational Haiku Wednesday

The three Wednesday words:
Careful
Hug
Mistake

Plus from Sensational Haiku Wednesday
Sensational (of all things)

Mixing memes, I offer this vignette in senryu form.

she was so careful

with her affection always

sleeping alone

~ : ~

nobody to hug

nobody to break down

her wall of ice

~ : ~

was it her mistake

to be so resolute

or finally give in

~ : ~

being less careful

be it mistake or not

accepting a hug

~ : ~

she discovered

the sensations were indeed

sensational

~(!)~

Sensational Haiku Wednesday -- Royal

ROYAL

our first major war
fought to get away from them
royals - revolting

~ : ~

KC Royals team
finished 16 out of first
better luck this year

~ : ~

winning poker hand
royals beat four of a kind
now I'm feeling flush

3WW CCCXVII and Sensational Haiku Wednesday

This weeks words for 3WW:

Heave
Ponder
Valid

This week's haiku theme:
Alternatives

The Love Song of Phil Anders

First adultery
Jalapeños in raw sugar
Deep breaths heave between sighs

Time to ponder
The grip of other thighs
Memory and strange scent carried home

New adventures  
Sense to hide the evidence
That makes each succeeding conquest valid

~ : ~ : ~

Alternatives

Adulterer's quest

Variety in partners
Evidence to hide

Sensational Haiku Wednesday - CRISIS

New crisis each day
Manufactured for headlines
A crisis crisis

~  : ~

Oh my what to do
Maybe I should just panic
 My hair is on fire

~  : ~ 

Another crisis
Yet another comment lost
Hazel's spam filter

SHW is powered by Jenn

Sensational Haiku Wednesday - Follow

In the field fallow  
Scarecrow -  that feckless fellow
Looks but can't follow

~ : ~ : ~

Far from the furrow
The old sow is farrowing
Litter runt follows

~ : ~ : ~

   Were I to tango
Down the cobbled streets at night
Would you follow me

Sensational Haiku Wednesday

 Near Black Lake - Summer 2011

PHOTOGRAPH

On the path of life

You need the right companion

Can you picture that

~  ~

Two kids wandering

Never quite out of the woods

We're much older now

~  ~

Can a mere picture

Capture the drama of our

Once and future love

Sensational Haiku Wednesday is Powered by Jenn

Carpe Diem - It's Sensational Haiku Wednesday

For Carpe Diem #85, the prompt is HILL.
For SHW, the prompt is ONWARD.

Each is a fitting follow up to Saturday's ANCIENT ROAD
Also, possibly influenced by seeing The Hobbit.

[ONWARD + HILL]

 

On the ancient road
Danger, adventure - let's go
Onward up the hill

~  ~  ~  ~  ~
 

A hill lies just past
The curve in the road - Let's go
See what is beyond

~  ~  ~  ~  ~
 

That is its purpose
The high spot in ev'ry road
To give us valleys

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

The climb is worth it
Foot over foot to survey
All you see from here

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Up into the hills
The road goes ever onward
Down into valleys

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Bumpy metaphore
At my age more than just a
Thing to be over

 ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Carpe Diem #85

Sensational Haiku Wednesday - Vision

Recently, I've been striving to achieve first-third line interchangeability, without torturing the language too much.  The first entry here fails to meet that goal, the others do, with varying degrees of success. Except for the the second, they all [most especially the first and last] can be related to last week's FSF, with the same prompt.

VISION

"I must look a sight"
She said, red-cheeked and wind-blown,
"No dear, a vision!"

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

That Superman had
X-ray vision - the power
To see through clothing

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

The touch of my eyes
Do you feel it caress you
When you pass me by?

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

When you look at me
Do you see the same love as
When I look at you?

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Things I see in dreams
Imaginary creatures
Fantasy landscapes

~  ~  ~  ~  ~
 
 Sensational Haiku Wednesday is powered by Jenn

{Sensational Haiku, Three Word} Wednesday

These prompts make me a bit more somber than the silliness you might have come to expect.  My mother-in-law has been in an extended care facility for several months.  They are trying hard to help here there, but she does little to help herself, and is growing weaker physically and emotionally.

Mentally, she's an enigma, and seems to wander among various degrees of past and present reality.  She's always been very sharp, so this is really quite disturbing.

Plus, a dear friend of mine who was an educator and a wonderful musician, only in his early 70's, is deep in the grip of dementia.   He now lives with his daughter and can't remember how to find his way to the bathroom.

SHW prompt:  Family
TWW CCCVIII prompts:  Echo, Hardship, Softly

Family memories
Echo softly -- the hardship
Of dementia nears

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

A non-haiku on the 3 words
Inspired by Pigeon Diaries 


Always speak softly of lost love
The echo is a drumbeat in your heart
Memory marches on in hardship

~ ~ ~

Update 12/20: As a haiku

Lost love - speak softly
Your heart's drumbeat - echos of 
Memory's hardship

This one has 1st-3rd line interchangeability;
a feature I haven't previously considered.

Memory's hardship
Your heart's drumbeat - echos of 
Lost love - speak softly

I think the second version seems a bit more coherent.

I'll at least be thinking about interchangeably in the future.

Sensational Haiku Wednesday

SEARCH

I

I didn't know I was

Looking but then fate stepped in

That's when I found her

II

If a Fairie comes

To our world is she searching

Or is she just lost

III

Why do you look for love

In right and wrong places when

What you want is sex

IV

Why look for sex and

Sometimes even pay for it

When you're seeking love

V

With all these words and

Syllables I am seeking

The perfect Haiku

Sensational Haiku Wednesday - AVARICE

Looks like I needn't have worried - today's SHW is up and running.

AVARICE

I

What I love more than

Her gold hair and bos’my chest

Is her chest of gold

II

 Santa's intention
For avaricious misers:
A nice lump of coal.

III

For greedy people
Even way more than enough
Is never enough.

Visual Dare 32 -- DISOBEY plus SHW -- REACTION

This time the VD prompt is a picture and a word.

 Source
DISOBEY

~  ~  ~

The Sensational Haiku Wednesday prompt is REACTION

~  ~  ~

A REACTION TO DISOBEY

She thinks “Gee”and ”Haw”
Command me; but no mere girl
Tells me where to go.

Roused from my stable
To this snow;  I’ll give her a
Ride she won’t forget.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

I think this pair of haiku REACTS to both prompts with disobedient intent, but without actually violating the integrity of the prompts.  For me, at least, skirting the edge that way spices it up just a little - like snatching that last chocolate morsel.


UPDATE: This is more disobedient than I thought.  I picked up last week's SHW prompt.    It's unlike Jenn not to have the new prompt up by mid-morning.  Hope she's OK.

UPDATE 2:  She's OK.

 

Triple Visual Dare Number 4 Plus SHW

Angela threw down the gauntlet this time and, mixing metaphors, sought to snare us with a tricky collection of presumably intractable photos.  But I was up well past midnight blogging the Crossword puzzle, and in the wee hours my addled brain takes off in even weirder flights of fancy.  This time it's 92 words.

Source

Source

Source

THE RAVIN'

Though he promised, "Nevermore!"
That damned raven's at my door.

So quickly, now, my little men
Before he flies away again,

Bring to me my sharpened snips
To give his wings some grounding clips.

But with his feathers ebon dark
There's no use for a pencil mark.

Imagine how he’ll raving sing
When I bob his raven wing.

Then when he can no more fly
I will bake him in a pie.

And when his evil, awful caws
No longer echo in my halls --
I'll resume my favorite pass time:
Sniffing walls.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Reduced for Sensational Haiku Wednesday

REACTION

Again the Raven comes
Spoiling my tranquility.
This time I'm ready!

Sensational Haiku Wednesday - Free Style

THANKSGIVING

On this day before
It's a good time to think of
All I'm thankful for.

Triple Visual Dare #2 Plus Sensational Haiku Wednesday

Find this week's TVD challenge here.  The SHW prompt is FIERCE!

The picture prompts [see the challenge link for photo credits]:

And now for something completely different - in exactly 100 words!

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

AN ODD DAY IN OZ

Elpheba wasn't going to fall into the same trap her sister did, so she cast a potent repelling spell at the rapidly descending house.

In the stress and strain of competing forces, the structure was rent asunder.

Zebra Boy wandered through the rubble, running his nimble fingers over various ruined items: twisted plumbing fixtures, half an old wall clock with a wall chunk still attached, bits of masonry and wood.

"Hey, kid," Elpheba hollered, "get out of there.  What do think you're doing?"

"Mind your own bee's wax, Lady, " Zebra Boy retorted, "I was just feeling a little board."

~  ~  ~  ~  ~ 

And, since I am never above mixing my memes --

The story reduced to a Haiku:

FIERCE

Home wrecker yells at
Strange little kid; he hurls back
A verbal brickbat.

Update: Here is some history on the word "brickbat."

Sensational Haiku Wednesday

Image source

Image Source

I
Of course I linger
In graveyards.  Where else would I
Meet a sexy witch? 


 II
Shadows are growing
As clouds engulf the sad moon;
Do I hear foot falls?

III
Do you hear that sound?
What could that weird creature be,
Howling at the moon?

IV
Why do the possessed
Always have the limited
Diet of pea soup?

Sensational Haiku Wednesday

FRESH

I

Ah - the kiss was sweet;

A welcome surprise, he thought.

Until she slapped him.

II

Ah - the kiss was sweet:

And flavored with her mint gum,

Now lodged in his mouth.

III

Ah - the kiss was sweet;

Snow flakes fell on her pert nose:

First sign of Winter.

IV

Ah - the kiss was sweet:

What's more fresh than new-found love?

Then they kissed again.