haiga – Whippet Wisdom – a Highland Journey

World Haiku Series 2021 (52) Haiku by Xenia Tran

The Akita International Haiku Network has organised the World Haiku Series 2021 ‘as a token of gratitude to our friends for their great contribution and their deep love of haiku’ and I am deeply humbled, honoured and grateful to contribute haiku and images to these special series too. A warm-hearted thank you to Mr Hidenori Hiruta for his beautiful translations, to the Akita International Haiku Network for the organisation and to all the sponsors who made this series possible.

Akita International Haiku Network

st brigid’s day

hand in hand we brace

the snow storm

(Whippet Wisdom blog, 1 February 2021)

聖ブリジッドの日

手をつないで気を引き締める

吹雪

settling down

three generations

of oxen

(Asahi Haikuist Network, The Asahi Shimbun, 5 February 2021)

くつろぐ

牛の

3世代

cherry blossom

an old pen

fills with ink

(Autumn Moon Haiku Journal 4:2, Spring/Summer 2021)

桜の花

古いペン

インクで満たす

desert flower

carving out this life

around the sun

(Haiku Dialogue, Troutswirl, The Haiku Foundation Blog, 4 March 2021)

砂漠の花

この人生を切り開く

太陽の周りで

lost and found

a barn key glitters

in the moonlight

(Asahi Haikuist Network, The Asahi Shimbun, 17 September 2021)

遺失物取扱所

納屋の鍵がきらめく

月光の下で

first light

we flock to save

the stranded dolphin

(Haiku Dialogue, Troutswirl, The Haiku Foundation Blog, 4 August 2021)

最初の光

救うために集まる

岸に乗り上げたイルカを

autumn leaf

this life and the next

one breath

(Whippet Wisdom blog, 7 October 2021)

紅葉

この人生と次の人生

一息

lighting the…

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World Haiku Series 2020 (102) Haiku by Xenia Tran

We are deeply honoured to share these Haiku and Photo Haiku as part of the World Haiku Series 2020, in respect of the 326th anniversary of Matsuo Bashõ’s passing and in respect of all the souls who lost their lives to COVID-19. A warm-hearted thank you to Mr Hidenori Hiruta for his beautiful Japanese translations and for creating this wonderful series.

Akita International Haiku Network

sunrise
a glance to the left
to see you breathing

(Frogpond Vol 43:3 Fall 2020)

日の出
左を一瞥
あなたが呼吸しているのを見るために

his grey hair
full of sunlight
the sea retreats

(The Bamboo Hut, Issue 4 – 2020)

彼の白髪
日光に満ちている
海は後退する

village store
the parrot tells us
there’s no bread

(Bundled Wildflowers, Haiku Society of America 2020 Members’ Anthology)

村の店
オウムが私たちに教えてくれる
パンはありません

north wind
lilies of the valley
shelter in place

(Haiku Dialogue: Haiku Prism – White, Troutswirl, The Haiku Foundation Blog, 20 May 2020)

北風
スズラン
屋内退避

adjusting pillows
before the night spreads
his final round

(First published in EarthRise Rolling Haiku Collaboration 2020 and subsequently included in TheHelping Hand Haiku Anthology, edited by Robert Epstein, Middle Island Press, 2020)

枕の調整
夜が広がる前に
彼の最終ラウンド

dreamcatcher
our old telepathy
works again

(Frameless Sky Issue 12, 2020)

ドリームキャッチャー
私たちの古いテレパシー
再び動作する

back from the shelter she names…

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Haiku: The Gull’s Voice

two whippets running towards the beach beside a row of beach huts

after the snow
a thirst for summer
in the gull’s voice

a set of freshly painted beach huts overlooking the sea

Wishing you all a wonderful Thursday and a peaceful rest of the week,

with love from Eivor, Pearl and Xenia xxx

Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.

Settings: f/8 – 1/2000 s – ISO 250, f/7.1 – 1/1600 s – ISO 400 and f/9 – 1/640 s – ISO 100.

Word of the Day Challenge: Thirst

Haiku: St Brigid’s Day

two whippets in winter jackets on the beach in the snow

st brigid’s day
hand in hand we brace
the snow storm

We are deeply honoured and delighted that the above haiku has been included in the World Haiku Series 2021, with a beautiful Japanese translation by Mr Hidenori Hiruta.

Wishing you all a blessed Imbolc and St Brigid’s Day,

with love from Eivor, Pearl and Xenia xxx

Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.

PI Poetry Prompt: Imbolc/St Brigid’s Day

Dutch Goes the Photo Tuesday Photo Challenge: All You Need is Love

Thursday’s Special: Pick a Word – Shoreline

Discover Challenge: Finding Your Place

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In this week’s Discover Challenge we are invited to post about a place that means something special to us and we can interpret this any way we wish. This challenge coincides with my completion of ‘Carpe Diem Haiku First Winter Retreat 2016 – Find the Silence’ where we were invited to find the silence and create haiku, haiga or tanka every day for thirty days.

This is a beautiful time of year to write about silence and connect with that calm place within ourselves.

winter silence
so many boats asleep
on dry land

More than half of my daily writings on ‘Finding the Silence’ were posted on twitter and I am sharing some of them here to show the many moments that inspired me to find the silence both outside and inside of myself.

the silent robin
awaits our return
eyes sparkle

The haiku below were previously posted on twitter and made me reflect more deeply. I added prose and created a double haibun for the blog in Frozen Footsteps.

frost rests
in silent caress
of the dawn

stillness
before the ski slopes
open to laughter

One fellow blogger commented that I am carrying the silence with me. It feels that way and I believe the accumulative effect of focusing on silence every day AND writing about it helps you to carry the silence from one day to the next.

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Fellow blogger Mark Aldrich has written many posts about Egyptian photo-journalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, also known as Shawkan. He has been held in prison without charge for more than three years and he misses the sky. On ciluna27’s Blog you can read more background information about the #SkyforShawkan initiative that was created on twitter where fellow photographers can post photographs of the sky for Shawkan.

After posting several photographs of the sky at #SkyforShawkan I found silence here too. Silence in the beauty of the many photographs posted here, silence in the invisible space where people who care about human rights come together.

I began to create haiga in aid of the campaign for Shawkan’s release and some of them took me to a completely different dimension of silence.

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One year later Shawkan is still in prison. I have created more haiga for the campaign and shared them on twitter. ciluna’s27 blog created a new and beautiful post on 12th December 2017 featuring many new photographs for the #SkyforShawkan campaign which include five of these haiga. You can read this post and see the images here.

Silence was to be found in so many places, including indoors.

candle light
warms the imagination
of shorter days

More than anything I became aware of the silent communication from something that is so much bigger than ourselves, the silent communication from nature and the silent communication and understanding between Eivor and Pearl. I could have written the haiku below every day for thirty days:

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