Flowers in Summertime Haiku
by Amanda Donohoe
Summer is the time for wildlife to thrive. With the passing of spring, summer brings a hearty, warm daytime and a cool, buzzing nighttime. Growing up on the Southside of Chicago, the ever-playful summer wildlife constantly surrounded me. The baby birds finally started to take flight from their homemade nests on my garage. The bunnies laid in the shade of the bushes on my front lawn. Even the squirrels enjoyed running across my backyard fence, teasing my dogs every chance they got. While the animals always kept me entertained on a hot summers day, it was always my mother’s flowers that interested me. She would drag me along to the hardware store where she would let me pick out the flower colors for that summer. My mom always gave me two options of flowers she wouldn’t mind having around the house. Most times I would chose pink and purple, but every so often she would choose a red or an orange plant, just to mix it up. We started the tradition of picking out flowers when I was seven years old. Usually we would pick the flowers toward the end of May and plant them by the first week of June. To this day, I still help my mom plant the tiny flowers into pots and put them around my house.
After being in this haiku class for about four months now, I’ve started to notice a pattern in the haiku that I thoroughly enjoy reading. Most haiku that I find I often like are about flowers. I love receiving flowers as gifts, so it only makes sense that I enjoy reading about them too. I think I can relate easily to flower haiku because of the use of the senses in them. It seems I am not the only who has this thought as well; thousands of poets from around the world can all relate through flower haiku as most people have similar experiences with them. Throughout the history of literature, flowers have been used to symbolize common themes. This understanding of each flower is a shared knowledge of what these common flowers are and in turn is reason that they are so popular. Carefully choosing haiku from all around the world, I’ve pieced together some of my favorites to try and represent what a summer is like for me on the Southside of Chicago. These plants have been a staple in my childhood as I can vividly remember what each of them look and smell like. Throughout this essay, I hope I can take you on a journey of where each plant has been in my life.
All of the haiku selected for this essay are from The Haiku Seasons: Poetry of the Natural World edited by William J. Higginson.
Red Geraniums
red geraniums
ripe in the awning
leak sunlight
Ellen Compton, The Haiku Seasons, 162
Through the use of identifying colors and type, this haiku is introduced specifically to capture the audience’s attention. It is very straightforward. Immediately the audience is aware of what type of flower is being talked about and more specifically its red color. The second line introduces the setting of this haiku; the awning. As the sun beats down on these small red flowers, their petals are not large enough to fully block out the sun underneath them, bringing in the third line; leak sunlight. These red geraniums are a common flower that enjoys being in the harsh summer sunlight. When I was younger we had a large pot on our tiny stoop that was shaped like a tree stump. It was ceramic and painted brown. Every year for about five years in a row, that ceramic stump was filled with red geraniums. They would bloom and overflow the pot that they were in. As the summer went on the plants scent would usually attract ants to it. Come mid-July it was struggle to get inside of the house without tracking in at least ten ants. The odor from the flowers was not a sweet sticky smell like roses or lilacs. This smell of the flowers was sweet, but had a hint of something kind of gross. These flowers would never be turned into a perfume as it would leave a sour after-smell in everyone’s nostrils. Such cute little flowers looked great for completing the picturesque look of our house, but up close you could see and smell the faults of this plant. Such a bright red causes attention to it, but for all the wrong reasons.
brown ceramic pot
overflowing with
blooming red geraniums
Amanda Donohoe
Clover
at the hazardous
wastes site
an eight-leaf clover
Carlos Colon, The Haiku Seasons, 99
Growing up in Chicago, everyone is aware of the pollution they are being exposed to. I learned as a child that you couldn’t see the stars in Chicago not because there weren’t any, but because of the light pollution from the city. Rivers near us are not safe to swim in; more and more fish wash up dead every day. While I have never specifically found an eight-leaf clover, I think this haiku can relate back to the issue of pollution in Chicago. A four-leaf clover is extremely rare and tedious to find. In my backyard, we constantly have clover covering our grass. The clovers were there on purpose just as much as the dandelions were. When I was about ten I decided to spend one day in search of a four-leaf clover. I figured it wouldn’t take long to find such a clover; after all, I was Irish. After an hour of searching, I cut my losses, and decided to give up on the idea of finding a four-leaf clover. I wasn’t disappointed so much as I was frustrated my luck wasn’t as good as my heritage claimed to be. Such a lucky charm was not in my favor. In the haiku, eight-leaf clover is also not a sign of luck, more so a sign of warning. Taking such a symbol of luck and good fortune and changing it to be that of caution. Who knew such a simple little plant could hold such a story in its eight leaves?
Lilacs
all my life
smelling that childhood
lilac tree
Virginia Brady Young, The Haiku Seasons, 91
I can relate to this haiku much more than any of the other haiku because I too had a lilac tree planted in my backyard when I was a young girl. For Mother’s Day, my dad bought my mom a lilac tree and planted it in the corner of my backyard. It took extremely well, and after the second year of it being planted, it finally began to bloom. Lilacs have a very strong scent. It is beautiful and clean. When a lilac tree blooms, you know it because you can smell the bush from several meters away. Smelling the opening buds takes me back to a simpler time, when all I had to worry about was what was dad cooking for dinner and who I would play with tomorrow. Scent memory is extremely strong. Whenever I see those beautiful light purple flowers, I am reminded of how great my childhood was.
green grass
in the golden sun
lilacs in the air
Amanda Donohoe
Raspberries
just as it’s touched
the over-ripe raspberry
drops off
Gayle MacDonald, The Haiku Seasons, 164
If you don’t pick a raspberry at its prime, it becomes too squishy to try and pick. It becomes overly juicy and no longer good to eat. Add to it the intensity of the summer sun, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. It’s easy to miss a raspberry’s prime; that’s why you must be patient and always keep a watchful eye on them. My family has never grown raspberries before, but we have grown strawberries in our backyard. They are a difficult plant to grow because of the delicate balance of water and sunlight that they must have. Not to mention that bugs are attracted to it because of the sweet fruit it produces. I’ve had instances like this haiku where I go to pick the fruit and it falls off the plant because it is so juicy and sweet. The delicate raspberry starting to decay after its prime time had passed is just a part of life.
Morning Glory
just as it closes . . .
a small bug enters
the morning glory
Geri Barton, The Haiku Seasons, 224
Morning glories have large petals that may have two different colors on them. They smell fantastic and are easy to take care of. They aren’t that big, but compared to a small bug they must be huge. We have several hanging plants around my house and garage. Such plants attract many bees and butterflies. Usually we plant them with leafy vines that will grow and spill over the hanging basket. Such insects enjoy these plants. The use of the word “small” in this haiku really helps bring attention to the different sizes seen in this snapshot. Maybe the bug is crawling into the flower for shelter for the evening. Or perhaps it mistakenly went in at the wrong time. Who knows? Whatever the reason may be, the tiny bug will be stuck there until morning when the morning glory’s petals open once more.
unfamiliar insect
lands on the hanging morning glory
vibrant colors paint its wings
Amanda Donohoe
The End of Summer
A leaf has fallen
upon my shoulder and so
I come to balance.
Cid Corman, The Haiku Seasons, 282
The end of summer can be found in the change of the seasons. Most noticeably in the falling of leaves. Trees going bare is a phenomenon that happens every year. It is captured in this lovely haiku, seen above. When the leaves fall off a tree it doesn’t mean everything is ending, it merely means a new beginning is happening. It is important to remember the little things in life and appreciate them as they come. Summer is a wonderful time, filled with so much life and joy. Because summer is such a short time of the year, we must treasure it while we can. It only comes once a year, which means we must take it in as much as we can. Moving into the colder months of the year makes the summertime and all its joys that much more special. Summer isn’t going away forever; it will be back next year. You must continue your life and make every moment count. A falling leaf may be the one thing that can help you balance your life and bring everything into place.
With the ever-changing seasons, we must remember to stop and give thanks to the natural beauty that is all around us. Through modern technology we are able to purchase flowers at a local grocery store in the middle of winter, if we so choose. This luxury is one we should not take for granted. Flowers tell a story and add radiance to bland scene. They share a common understanding all around the world. Flower haiku are so popular because almost everyone can relate to them. What makes a flower haiku truly spectacular is the use of imagery in a tiny three-line snapshot. Describing them indirectly almost always has a strong effect on readers. Through flower haiku, millions of people can connect to share the beauty of what they see in their everyday world.
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Works Cited
Higginson, William J. The Haiku Seasons: Poetry of the Natural World. Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge, 2008. Print. |
