On a troubled current
we grow old in this world–
today’s rain-filled stream
will only increase
with tears.
~Izumi Shikibu (J Hirsfield & M Aratani, The Ink Dark Moon)

Nikon D750 f/7.1 1/100 s 300 mmm 100 ISO
On a troubled current
we grow old in this world–
today’s rain-filled stream
will only increase
with tears.
~Izumi Shikibu (J Hirsfield & M Aratani, The Ink Dark Moon)

Nikon D750 f/7.1 1/100 s 300 mmm 100 ISO
Will you turn toward me?
I am lonely too,
this autumn evening.
~Basho (F. Bowers, The Classic Traditions of Haiku)

I felt compelled to update this earlier post to invite you to visit LdG luciledegodoy who earlier noted my image inspired her to post a photograph she created a few days ago. I invite you to hop on over to visit her post and while there listen to Eva Cassidy’s wondrous voice and the story of her life.
I’ve traveled
that dark path to the world
which comes down from this mountain
just to see you
one last time.
~Izumi Shikibu (J Hirshfield & M Aratani, The Ink Dark Moon)

Nikon D750 f/10 1/200s 66mm 100 ISO
even tortoise and crane
meet their fate…
autumn evening
~Issa (www.haikuguy.com)

Nikon D750 f/7.1 1/125s 300 mm ISO 100
Going through the gate
I also am a wander
this twilight in autumn
~Buson (Y Sawa & E Shiffert, Haiku Master Buson)
It began that first Halloween in Des Moines, Iowa, when I found myself wondering if the ghost, goblins, and witches that appeared at my door were also messaging the onset of seasonal changes. It was that year as my daughter’s Halloween costume was atop layers of clothing and hidden by a winter coat, I first noticed–and then again during later years in Wyoming and Colorado–that Halloween is often accompanied by a significant drop in temperature that generally lasted well into spring.
Today, the November 1, 2017 edition of Aljazeera reported that while Halloween is not recognized outside the western world “the date is climatologically significant in that it ends the three-month climatological autumn. Figures will now be confirmed and compared, by climatological statisticians, with autumn seasons from previous years.”
Additionally, at the end of October:
The Indian monsoon withdraws to the tip of India and Sri Lanka and the second cyclone season begins in the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. The Australian cyclone season officially begins.
Both Australia and South Africa have seen particularly stormy spring seasons and are settling now into summer.
China has entered its winter season with the northeast monsoon now prevalent. In the United States, the last few days of October brought some proper snow to the northern states.
Northern Europe has been battered by a windstorm followed by a big drop in temperature. The system responsible is still covering Belarus in snow. Western Europe, and in particular Iberia, is yet to realise the change of season.
Sometimes one’s private musings do have a bit of merit.
We meet and we part,
Coming and going — hearts like passing clouds.
Except for the marks of a frosty-hair brush,
human traces are hard to find.
~Ryokan (K Tanahashi, Sky Above, Great Wind)

once green, now fading yellow
a beautiful leaf
all by itself in autumn

dandelion wind
and departing parachutes
awaiting a spring

Beckoning me?
Surely not –
pampas grass
~Nishiyama Soin (S Carter, Haiku before Haiku)

Nikon D750 f/5.6 1/160s 45 mm 100 ISO
Before this autumn wind
even the shadows of mountains
shudder and tremble.
~Issa (S. Hamill, The Sound of Water)

Nikon D750 f/7.1 35mm 1/320s 400ISO
This morning I will fetch water,
cut firewood,
and pick herbs
during a break
in this autumn shower.
~Ryokan

Even in a person
most times indifferent
to things around him
they waken feelings–
the first winds of autumn
~Saigyō

You must be logged in to post a comment.