Do you enjoy back-to-school anticipation? Bittersweet arranged on the fireplace mantle? Halloween? ~~~ Chilly mornings that make you grab a plaid flannel shirt? Pumpkin pie? Moody interludes? Exuberant bursts of energy? ~~ Walking in the woods? ~~ Raking capriciously crisp autumn leaves? Football? ~~ Listening to honking geese flying south? Watching squirrels gather acorns? Smooching under a harvest moon? ~~ Thanksgiving? Watching red and gold leaves swirling giddily to earth in whirling breezes? Listening to Autumn in Vivaldi's "Four Seasons?" +++ Then autumn may be your favorite time of the year. And writing haiku is one of the best ways to express the exhilarating zest that autumn brings --- and the melancholy that may gnaw at your memories of people you loved and lost in autumn. Indeed, expressing the conflicting moods --- and describing the changing scenery of nature's four seasons --- are among the hallmarks of haiku. The charmingly succinct three-line observations (expressed in lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables) were developed centuries ago in Japan. Today, people of all ages around the world love to read and write haiku as a way of interacting with nature and defining the days of our lives. For example, the haiku you wrote at age 17 might be quite different than the one you will write at 71. Here's a sampling of my 2002 haiku, followed by some classics penned by the masters. The observations of the two eras are essentially similar --- yet starkly different.

Autumnal Mood and Hue of 2002 Oh scarlet autumn! that profound punctuation to shamrock summer +++ Crisp falling leaves crunch deliciously as joggers pound asphalt bike trail +++ Crows pluck crimson leaves from birdbath to splash amid blue sky reflections +++ Kaleidoscopic leaves swirl and camouflage winter's relentless approach +++ Indian Summer burnishes bright leaf colors into pastel hues +++ Fun fills the night air ... homecoming, football, bands, but ... no date for the dance +++ Jack-o-lantern glow and stench cloak trick-or-treaters on Halloween night +++ Umber oak leaves cling stubbornly to their boughs rasping until spring +++ Tears for NYC and our Pentagon doth fill an ocean of angst +++ Autumn: my yearly clash with conflicting feelings of joy and despair +++ --- Carol Nation ---

B - I - T - T - E - R - S - W - E - E - T

The Haiku Masters Contemplate Autumn Yellow autumn moon ... unimpressed the scarecrow stands simply looking bored ISSA -- 1763-1827 +++ At our last parting bending between boat and shore ... that weeping willow SHIKI -- 1866-1902 +++ September sunshine ... the hovering dragonfly's shimmering shadow KARO +++ See ... the heavy leaf on the silent windless day ... falls of its own will BONCHO +++ So enviable ... maple-leaves most glorious contemplating death SHIKO +++ Shocking ... the red of lacquered fingernails against white chrysanthemum CHIYO-NI +++ Do your worst, old frost you can no longer wound me ... last chrysthemum! OEMARU +++ Dry cheerful cricket chirping, keeps the autumn gay ... contemptuous of frost BASHO -- 1644-1694 +++ Dancing in my silks money tossed itself away ... pretty, this paper dress! SONO-JO +++ Now in late autumn look, on my old rubbish-heap ... blue morning glory TAIGI +++ Lonely umbrella passing the House at twilight... first snow falling soft YAHA +++

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Hurrah for Haiku! It offers something for everyone! If you enjoy haiku one way or the other, then the Internet is a treasure chest yielding more than 200,000 choices. Read, write, study, learn, illustrate, interpret, analyze, teach, compete, judge, collect, share, discuss, publish, or simply enjoy --- all the options are there for people of all ages to share worldwide. An online search indicates that most nations --- and most American states and big cities --- have haiku societies. USA TODAY even has a competitive online haiku feature every weekday --- http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/haiku.htm --- for readers. Here's the link to the homepage of the Haiku Society of America, which purports to be the largest haiku group in the U.S.: http://www.hsa-haiku.org --- offering a newsletter, haiku contests and awards, the 'Frogpond' journal, and much more. Children around the world send their drawings and haiku to the Children's Haiku Garden --- http://www.tecnet.or.jp/~haiku/ Many sites explain how to write haiku. Two short and simple webpages are http://www.hollinet.com/~mrk/help/haiku.html and http://www.avsands.com/Writing/howtowriteah_adn_av.htm --- and animal lovers may especially enjoy the second one because it includes "animal haiku." One comprehesive site is http://www.haikuworld.org . Here, visitors are invited to begin to learn how to write haiku. They will also find links to haiku magazines. books, contests, and more. One nice feature is a daily calendar log that invites "unknown" poets to publish their "fresh" haiku. Some sites explain how to teach haiku to people of various ages, and how to make lesson plans. There are haiku bibliographies. Some interactive sites provide illustrations and photographs for haiku writers to describe and post. There are haiku chat groups, discussion groups, and contest pages. One site allows visitors to visit and post haiku obituaries. Another ---The Toast Point Haiku Contest --- was so popular it had to close down in only four years, but all the archives are still online. (And yours truly is proud to say she won a gold star for her haiku on the awful things lawnmowers do to buttercups.) If you don't want to write haiku, or haven't the time to learn how to write it, just join the fun and generate your own haiku at http://www.everypoet.com/haiku/default.htm ! You can read the morning news headlines in haiku at http://www.headlinehaikus.com ~~ Or visit the haiku tournaments or sci-fi haiku pages. One haiku webpage --- http://www.shrinker.net/entry/Airless_Suburban_Haiku or http://www.selendy.com/suburban/ --- cynically considers conspicuous consumption. And speaking of consumption, some readers may be entertained by the SPAM-ku Archive at http://pemtropics.mit.edu/~jcho/spam/art.html (and /archive.html). It dishes out thousands of haiku-style entries submitted by people whose appetite apparently was inspired by the book, Spam-ku: Tranquil Reflections on Luncheon Loaf by John Cho, Editor. Yes, there is virtually no end to haiku variety in cyberspace for your amusement and edification --- from classical, literary and contemporary to mod, pop and pseudo. Enjoy! +++

Thank you for visiting Crisp Autumn Haiku and my Sweet Haiku Suite!

Hungry for more haiku?

Click here to go to the top of my four-seasons Sweet Haiku Suite ~~~ which opens with Too-Hot-To-Sleep-HAIKU,
Too-Cold-To-Get-Outta-Bed-HAIKU,
and Spring Sings Haiku,

~~~ and concludes with Crisp Autumn Haiku. You'll also find additional interesting haiku links on the spring, summer and winter pages.

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Click the faces for neon haiku
at my Neon Nightmares page.

Click the palm reader sign for my Neon Nocturne page,
which includes haiku plus information celebrating the first century of neon.

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To send me an e-mail, just click on the neon cameo. Thanks!

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