Fusion haiku featuring Basho

Posted on Categories Poetry
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A discarded cicada shell (exoskeleton) posted on Pixabay by “skeeze”

In his ‘fusion’ or ‘crossroads’ haiku challenges Chevrefeuille takes two haiku and invites us to create a new one inspired by both.  His Heeding Haiku prompt for the week proposes a fusion of two Basho haiku translated by Jane Reichhold:

from a treetop

emptiness dropped down

in a cicada shell

~

black forest

whatever you may say

a morning of snow

©️Basho (1644-1694), translated by Reichhold

I have written two haiku, each inspired by both of Basho’s poems.

late summer mayhem

shrill calls from the dark forest

lovers’ armour thrown

~

in wooded shade

peace in another world

tangled mind unwinds

~

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Aokigahara forest in Yamanashi, Japan; photo by “ajari” of Japan, CCA 2.0 license

© 2018 Ontheland

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Published by Janice

My name is Janice.  I started blogging as Ontheland when I moved from Toronto to a rural area near Kingston, Ontario in Canada.  Over time I have found myself writing poetry, mostly in Japanese forms, such as haiku and haibun.  One of my deepest interests is the natural world: the joy of it and how we can look after it better.

14 thoughts on “Fusion haiku featuring Basho”

  5. The call of the wild – even insects have such songs.

    When I find the empty shells of the cicada it is fascinating. There is actually a wasp called a Cicada Killer.
    And I’ve seen the small wasp successfully take down the larger cicada.

    Nature in all its aspects, both life and death – have meaning and purpose.

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    Reply

      1. The shells, kind of like a snake shedding skin. You might think you are seeing the insect, but only the shell remains. – Especially if it isn’t moving and is somewhat transparent – it can stick to tree bark so you might think it is living, but the living part left and went off to bury itself for next year. 🙂

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada
        Interesting info in the link.
        There’s a clip in there with different Cicada voices.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I think an adult emerges from the shell and looks forward to several weeks of evading predators, trilling, and mating. I hope this is right because my first haiku is based on that idea…

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