Per Diem: Daily Haiku for July features guest-editor Linda Weir’s collection on the theme of Herpetofauna. This is what Linda offers by way of an introduction to her theme:
The English Oxford Living Dictionary defines herpetofauna as the reptiles and amphibians of a particular region, habitat, or geological period. It further explains the origin as from the Greek word herpeton or ‘creeping thing.’ This haiku collection celebrates these creeping things and features poems about reptiles (turtles, lizards, snakes, crocodiles and such) and amphibians (frogs, toads, and salamanders). While these animals are often overlooked as mere creeping things, haiku poets since the beginning of this art have written about these creatures. Herpetofauna feature in one of the most famous of all haiku, Basho’s:
The old pond;
A frog jumps in —
The sound of the water.
(translator R.H. Blyth)In this Per Diem series, I hope readers will enjoy this collection of modern day haiku featuring amphibians and reptiles. And I hope it will inspire more poets to appreciate and write about these special creeping things that share the world with us.
Enjoy!
Draco mocks the sun…
ice crystals scaling flat
on a Lizard Moon
skink
a bit of leaf litter
darts away
A Hundred Gourds 1:3, June 2012
bush cemetery
a snake slips into
the shade
A Hundred Gourds 2:2, March 2013
early dinner
nearby fire fly disappears
frog lights up
Trilla thank you for your herpetofauna haiku. I’m a firefly haiku fan too and have seen YouTube video of what your poem describes.
Thanks, Linda. These were nice, and I love the word “herpetofauna.”
By the way, I looked up the Basho haiku in Jane Reichhold’s book Basho The Complete Haiku. She gave the following translation of the Basho haiku.
old pond
a frog jumps into
the sound of water
The difference is “into,” rather than “in.” She also gave this as an example of sense switching, one of Basho’s techniques. Reichhold also gave a literal translation of the poem, which shows that there is a pause after the first line, rather than the second. The “in” can also be read that way, but not as easily.
Nevertheless, I still cling to “in,” but with a simpler third line.
old pond
a frog jumps in
water sound
Thanks Lee! I enjoy seeing all the different translations if Basho’s old pond haiku. I think the one you highlighted is excellent.
For those interested in exploring this haiku and translation more, I’d suggest “One hundred frogs: from Renga to Haiku to English” by Hiroaki Sato.
hot summer breeze–
wary anole bakes
while Chihuahua barks
Thank you Mary Ellen for sharing your herpetofauna haiku!
pond smell
in the moonless night
bullfrog’s croak
a few tadpoles
through the sun’s disc
heron’s beak
Martin thank you for these contributions to the herpetofaunal haiku theme!
Hi Linda,
I used to work with Australia’s National Vertebrate Collection, which included frogs and lizards. I enjoy reading and writing haiku about them. Looking forward to this month’s Per Diem selection! Cheers from Marietta
frogs’ eyes
in the pawpaw—
housebound child
.
—cattails, January 2016
.
sun-warmed stones
for the skink and me
early spring
.
—hedgerow: a journal of small poems, Issue #67 March 2016
.
bright morning—
one last scale peels
from the snake’s eye
.
—Creatrix Haiku #32, March 2016
Hi Marietta – Thank you for sharing some of your herp haiku. I especially love your middle one with the warm stones enjoyed by you and the skink. I’ve got skinks that live in my front door steps and sun themselves there.
each night, it is said
crocodile swallows the sun…
morn he spits it up
Thanks Pat. Nice contribution to the herpetofauna haiku theme.
Thank you Linda.
dappled sun
painting a toad’s warts . . .
clear water