Tag Archives: Haiku

by Luanne | October 21, 2025 · 1:59 pm

#TankaTuesday, Fall Haiku

With my new fall routine in place, I’m back to trying #TankaTuesday syllabic poetry.

This week’s prompt was brought by Yvette M. Calleiro at Tanka Tuesday: Absorb, Repel and instructs poets to use the words “absorb” and “repel” in their syllabic poems. We can add a kigo word for fun. These are from a list of seasonal words.

I wrote this haiku with the two prompt words and the kigo “autumn sky.” Technically, haiku should not be rhyming, and this rhyme was unintentional. But I didn’t want to change it ;). Also, the plural of haiku can be haiku or haikus. I prefer haiku.

Autumn sky so blue

it repels all other hues

and absorbs my dreams.

I also wrote another haiku using the kigo “chilly.”

Chilly fall morning

sunlight splintering through trees

sparks dance at my feet

I posted an unenhanced photo of the intense blue sky in Arizona on Monday, but I’ll repost here to go with the first haiku.

The air seemed chilly this morning. A crispy fall morning. At least by Arizona standards. It was probably 65 degrees, and I could still wear a sleeveless dress.

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by Luanne | August 26, 2024 · 12:21 pm

Simple Pleasures: My Review of the New Elizabeth Gauffreau Poetry Collection

What a pleasure to open Elizabeth Gauffreau’s new book, Simple Pleasures: Haiku from the Place Just Right. Every page features a beautiful nature photo with an accompanying haiku. Combining poem with image creates a new art genre, one where each component gives more meaning to the other.

The first page displays a peaceful dirt road surrounded by evergreens. The poet invites the reader to accompany her on this trip through the natural beauty of the northeastern United States:

dirt road adventure

washboard, slapping branches, ruts

GPS turned off

I love that the GPS is turned off so that instead of following technology, we—poet and reader—are opening ourselves to the adventure.

Gauffreau directs us to majestic vistas, but she also points out the small or almost unnoticeable, such as a dappled woods image where you must look carefully or be directed by the poem:

new-growth pines, maples

farmer’s forgotten stone wall

a forest reclaimed

I learned things from the poems, which should not be surprising as Gauffreau seems so at home in the region.

stand of white birches

roots entwined canopy shared

indigenous trees

I hadn’t thought of birches as being Indigenous, so that was a bit of defamiliarizing the familiar, I suppose, as it made me take note. And it reminded me of the Robert Frost (another New England poet) poem, “Birches.”

The book is organized by the seasons of the year and makes a full cycle of the beauty of the area. Simple Pleasures: Haiku from the Place Just Right makes a gorgeous addition to my collection of Elizabeth Gauffreau books, Telling Sonny and Grief Songs. Heads up, though, I would recommend purchasing the paperback version because you will want to flip open the book often.

###

Author Biography

Elizabeth Gauffreau writes fiction and poetry with a strong connection to family and place. Her work has been widely published in literary magazines, as well as several themed anthologies. Her short story “Henrietta’s Saving Grace” was awarded the 2022 Ben Nyberg prize for fiction by Choeofpleirn Press.

She has published a novel, Telling Sonny, and a collection of photopoetry, Grief Songs: Poems of Love & Remembrance. She is currently working on a novel, The Weight of Snow and Regret, based on the closing of the last poor farm in Vermont in 1968.

Liz’s professional background is in nontraditional higher education, including academic advising, classroom and online teaching, curriculum development, and program administration. She received the Granite State College Distinguished Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2018. Liz lives in Nottingham, New Hampshire with her husband. Find her online at https://lizgauffreau.com.

Book2Read Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/SimplePleasures

Print & Fixed EPUB for tablets and Kindle Fire

BookFunnel PDF Purchase Link: https://buy.bookfunnel.com/gef1ili6qd

For any device.

Blog Tour Host Links: https://lizgauffreau.com/simple-pleasures-blog-tour-links/

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Tagged as #thesealeychallenge, book release, book review, Elizabeth Gauffreau, Haiku, nature poetry, New England nature photography, Simple Pleasures, syllabic poetry

by Luanne | August 12, 2024 · 5:15 am

Simple Pleasures Blog Tour: Day #7 – August 12 – Luanne Castle

Introduction

Thank you, Luanne, for hosting me on Day #7 of my blog tour for Simple Pleasures: Haiku from the Place Just Right! For this tour stop, I’m going to say a few words about my philosophy of haiku to give readers a sense of what to expect from Simple Pleasures.

I think it’s important for me as a writer of poetry and fiction to understand the literary context in which I’m writing–both the current context of what writers in a particular genre are creating and the literary tradition which brought the genre to this point.

When I first became interested in haiku as syllabic poetry, I was surprised to learn that haiku in English is a very slippery beast to pin down. There are purists who adhere to the 5-7-5 syllable count, the season word (kigo) and the pause that cuts the haiku into two parts (kireji). The Haiku Society of America, on the other hand, espouses the spirit of the Japanese form without trying to replicate the Japanese language-based form in English. (https://www.hsa-haiku.org/hsa-definitions.html)

Then there’s this guy, Vermont poet Geof Hewitt, who decides to make his own rules. (Geof is a performance poet whom I met when he visited my tenth-grade English class in 1971. Then, in the early 2,000s, I took a performance poetry workshop with him, which was great fun. I even got a new poem out of it!)

https://vimeo.com/991080595/fe5211dfc3

Excerpted from: https://www.vermonthumanities.org/words-in-woods-hewitt/

So where does this leave me? I think I’m safe in saying that I follow the Haiku Society of America’s definition of haiku: “A haiku is a short poem that uses imagistic language to convey the essence of an experience of nature or the season intuitively linked to the human condition.”

I adhere to the 5-7-5 syllabic structure because it serves me well as the means by which I discover and express that essence. Any exception I may make to the syllable count is minor, when the poem just doesn’t scan right. Most of my haiku include a kigo, although my interpretation of season may extend to seasons of life.

The simple pleasures of our favorite places in nature are gifts of the spirit to be shared with others. In this collection of 53 haiku, each paired with a photograph, poet Liz Gauffreau invites readers to come with her to some of her favorite places in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Some places are long-time favorites going back years; others have become favorites by virtue of inspiring poetry.

Author Biography

Book2Read Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/SimplePleasures

Print & Fixed EPUB for tablets and Kindle Fire

BookFunnel PDF Purchase Link: https://buy.bookfunnel.com/gef1ili6qd

For any device.

Blog Tour Host Links: https://lizgauffreau.com/simple-pleasures-blog-tour-links/

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by Luanne | January 26, 2024 · 7:08 pm

Baby Haiku: #TankaTuesday

24 Seasons Syllabic Poetry Challenge, No. 18, 1/23/24, Part I, Deep Cold (January 20 – February 2) Daikan 大寒

For this week’s haiku I used “bleached grasses” for a kigo.

the bleached grasses

wave in a joyful welcome

to my new grandson

Now you can tell me how adorable he is :)!!!!

UPDATE: I have switched out the baby’s photo with this one of me holding him because I don’t want his photo floating all over the internet. So hopefully it will go away from any searches soon.

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by Luanne | January 16, 2024 · 4:13 pm

Sonoran Blossoms Haibun: #TankaTuesday

In the 24-season syllabic poetry challenge for #TankaTuesday we have Poet’s Choice, as it’s the third week of the Early Cold season. My kigos are “Amaryllis” and “cold light,” which can be found in the haiku portion of the following haibun.

***

Sonoran Blossoms

The two gardening seasons in the Sonoran desert are warm and cool. We plant flowers in the spring, which can be from February though May, for summer blooming. In the fall, we plant cool season flowers, which last until May. Our months of choice are generally October and May. My yard is one acre with a wash running through it. On one side of the wash the land is slightly higher than the other, and because cold air sinks, some winters the lower side may experience a slight freeze that lasts until mid-morning, while the other side rarely freezes. The flowers may freeze to death occasionally, if they are not covered by frost cloths. However, many winters we get no freeze at all. Because of the mild weather, we can plant blossoming indoor-outdoor plants outside after they lose their flowers.

amaryllis blooms

fade under winter’s cold light

time to plant outdoors

Sometimes people get creative with protecting plants when the temperature hovers uncomfortably close to freezing in the early morning hours. This person uses Santa hats usually, but this year after New Year’s they replaced them with multi-colored beanies!

Recently, I participated in an Ugly Art Club event and in Care December from Everything Art. I’ve mentioned them both before. This is the Care December journal I finished. Each spread is an exploration in emotions and self-care, rather than being an attempt to create art. So there is a lot of hidden meaning behind each one. And, yes, the idea for me was to create another GRUNGY journal, as they are my favorites. The theme this year was the color blue in all its meanings.

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by Luanne | January 9, 2024 · 9:25 pm

Verse Envelope Haibun: #TankaTuesday

In the 24-season syllabic poetry challenge, we are now at Part II, Early Cold (January 5 – 20) Shokan 小寒. The request was to write a haibun, so I decided to try a verse envelope haibun where the prose passage is bookended by haikus. Generally, my haibun are prose passage followed by one haiku. My kigos are bolded. I think the first haiku is stretching the definition of haiku, but it’s what I wanted to say.

***

new year is now old

new beginnings are over

the routine is back

We approach each new year with anticipation, hoping for something to stir us. We want to feel renewed and ready for a spark to keep us placing one foot ahead of the other. But we are only in the second week of 2024 and already we have resumed the labor of our jobs, the routine of our personal care and feeding. For most of us, our relationships have not changed. But divinity willing, within the next 2-4 weeks I will have a new relationship with a grandson.

after we meet, I’ll

introduce you to snow crows

and sweet acacia

***

This tree is in my yard. Notice how its scars are hearts. Can’t wait to show that to the kid!

(I had to go back to classic editor to add the photo because I was getting an error message. “This block has encountered an error and cannot be previewed.” Has anybody else been getting that message and do you know anything about it?

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by Luanne | January 3, 2024 · 5:15 am

Shadow and Light: #TankaTuesday

In the 24-season syllabic poetry challenge, we are now at Part I, Early Cold (January 5 – 20) Shokan 小寒. I suppose even in Arizona this is true. We are now colder than we were. On my daily walks I wear a lightweight neck scarf, a thin cardigan, and a rain-type jacket. It is not really winter wear, but it is a far cry from the heat of our summers when I only want to wear the lightest sundress I can find.

This winter’s cold light,

crisp and startling, throws shadows

on glistening grass.

Have you seen the cat lady portraits by art photographer Brooke Hummer? Gorgeous and smart. https://apanational.org/inspiration/entry/brooke-hummer-cats-women-and-art/

The gardener and I have an anniversary on Friday. We have been married so long the kids need to plan a party for next year! Also in news: grand baby is coming in a little over three weeks! I’ve been working on my grandma name. Thinking of the Dutch “Bomma,” but still mulling.

I submitted the second section of my unpublished memoir to the Tucson Festival of Books contest. I received notice that it is a finalist for the contest. Last year the first section was a finalist in the same contest. I have been joking that I’m “always a bridesmaid,” although I am grateful that it is

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by Luanne | September 6, 2023 · 5:15 am

Synonym Haiga #TankaTuesday

This week’s #TankaTuesday by Colleen Chesebro is to write a syllabic poem using synonyms of the words “quiet” and “seek.” I decided to try a haiga, although that is a little dangerous.

A haiga, in its original form, is a Japanese painting with a haiku in it. The text and image work together. The reason I think it’s “dangerous” for me to try this form is that my mixed media fun leans more abstract, so some people might not think this is a haiga. However, I am experimenting here because I like the idea of blending text and image.

I used “silence” for quiet (as a noun) and “pursued” for seek.

There’s a lot of truth in this haiga: we never really had a monsoon season this year, and yet it’s now September. How will we get to fall if we don’t have monsoons to shift the balance? We have to actively pursue fall by decorating with pumpkins and eating pumpkin ice cream.

pile of pumpkin — Photo by Ylanite Koppens on Pexels.com

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by Luanne | August 22, 2023 · 5:15 am

Summer Daisies #TankaTuesday

It’s been a long time since I wrote posts based on Dawn Raffel’s memoir, The Secret Life of Objects. The idea is to write about an object that evokes memories.

I’ve blogged a couple of times about the vacation trip I went on with my parents when I wasn’t even four years old yet. We drove from Michigan south and visited Louisiana and Texas, among other states. Some of my most vivid memories from the time period were in New Orleans. I will always associate the city with sidewalk painters seated at their easels, the brushes that were extensions of their hands, and of course their fascinating canvases.

When I visited my mother in April to help her pack up some items before her move into the apartment building at her retirement village, I discovered this painting, long forgotten and gathering dust in Mom’s basement. My parents purchased it on that trip to New Orleans, and it hung for years in their living room. I shipped it home to myself, and now it hangs in my living room, reminding me of that vacation and the colorful, exciting world that existed outside Kalamazoo.

Colleen Chesebro’s prompt for #TankaTuesday is to use at least one kigo word in a syllabic poem for the current season, which in Arizona is summer. Colleen explains a kigo: 👉🏻 What is a KIGO? A kigo is a season word used in haiku and haibun (the haiku portion).

She provides a possible list of kigos. Daisies are not on the list, perhaps because many think of them as spring flowers. However, daisies are also summer flowers! So many types: Chrysanthemum*, Marguerite, English, Gloriosa, Shasta, Cape, Oxeye, and Gerbera. I prefer Gerbera because unlike the other varieties they are completely non-toxic to cats! *this variety is on Colleen’s list

Here is my haiku:

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by Luanne | June 26, 2023 · 7:55 pm

Syllabic Synonyms: #TankaTuesday

Colleen at Wordcraft poetry suggested writing a syllabic poem using synonyms for the words OPEN and CLOSE.

When the sun unfurls

in the rosy morning sky

the owl shuts her eyes.

In my haiku I used unfurl as a synonym of open and shut as a synonym for close.

Speaking of animals I have a cat poem in a new anthology of ekphrastic poetry published by Moonstone Press. It can be purchased here if you like ekphrastic poetry. https://moonstone-arts-center.square.site/product/ekphrastic-poetry/423