The Whirligig - Little Creatures - November 28, 2014

Credits: Whirligig or pond-skater

tiny whirligig
like a novice ice-skater
all fours flung out

small water dancer
on the pond at dawn and dusk -
gracelessly resting

(c) G.s.k. '14

I liked the image of the whirligig .. they are exquisite little creatures that sit there on top of the water with all four of their legs outstretched ... they remind me of an old winter cartoon I saw years ago:

Today's Little Creatures is to compose a classical haiku (5-7-5; seasonword; cuttingword; a short moment; in a way a spiritual or deeper layer and the first and third line have to be interchangable).

"This week's episode of Little Creatures is based on a nice haiku written by Tan Taigi (1709 -1771).He became famous through Masaoka Shiki, who took up his haiku. Taigi was a haiku poet who lived in the mid Edo-period. At the age of 40 he became a priest at the temple Daitoku-Ji in Kyoto. Later in his life, he stayed in a hermitage called Fuya-An (Hermitage with no night) in the precincts of the courtesan pleasure quarters Shimabara in 1748 and lived as a friend of Yosa Buson. He liked to socialize and drink sake and used to say:

“When praying to Buddha I write haiku,  when praying to the Shinto gods I write haiku”.

Because of his heavy drinking he suffered a brain hemorrhage and died in the Year Meiwa 8. He is burried at the temple Korin-ji in Kyoto."

 

shizumareba nagaruru ashi ya mizusumashi

the whirligig;

when it stops skating,

the legs float away

© Taigi

By Carpe Diem Haiku Kai