Words of Leaves [Mutsuki ②/Haiku]

The school route is brighter now that the coldest days have passed

Bundled up in layers, the sparrows and I on the morning path

The child is a rabbit, running at full speed with the morning sun at his back

Last time, I posted tanka on note for the first time, so I decided to ride that momentum and post some haiku as well.
Just the other day, my eldest son was studying a unit on "getting familiar with haiku" in Japanese class (good timing!), and I found it interesting that third graders study things like this, so I think I'll write an article about that soon too.


I'm someone whose writing tends to get long and rambling.
Haiku, which has even fewer characters than tanka, quickly exceeds the limit if I try to explain the situation. If I accept that I don't need to put every single feeling or circumstance into words, I feel like it's a bit easier to write.

However, perhaps because I try to compose poems about things I see or think of during my commute, while I become sensitive to seasonal changes, my motifs always end up being similar.


For example, all three poems this time are about "morning" and "the road."
Only the first one, "The coldest days...", was left in a memo from a few years ago, and the other two were thought up in the last week or two, but the others are mostly similar. Other than that, it's "children" or "the sky."

What do other people get inspiration from, and when do they write poetry?
It's not just poetry; I'm also curious about when other people write and how they find the time, but since it seems like a different project is being held elsewhere regarding how to write on note, I'll think about it there.


People often say the three 'ues' (on horseback, on a pillow, and in the restroom) are best for refining writing, but what about poetry? In my case, I fall asleep as soon as I get into bed, and words don't come to me in the restroom.
Also, even if I want to write down something that flashes into my mind, I don't think I should touch my smartphone right before going to sleep (though I do), and the same goes for being in the restroom. If I can't use my smartphone anyway, I feel like the bath is better suited for composing poetry.

In that sense, being on horseback (or in this case, being swayed on a bus or train) is good for thinking vaguely about things, as the scenery flows by at a good speed and you can observe people moderately. If something comes to mind, I can immediately memo it on my smartphone. I feel like it's also suitable for carefully selecting words or polishing sentences.
That might also be related to the fact that I usually use empty local trains. On rainy mornings, buses in particular are packed with people, and there are times when I hesitate to even take my smartphone out of my pocket (though I might be able to compose a haiku about that).


If the condition for composing poetry is being able to be absent-minded, then creation and art must be fields with the ultimate poor time performance.
I think that's why I can't bring myself to like the term 'time performance'.



Even if I were on horseback, I couldn't write poetry if I were commuting by car. Ideas might come to me, but if I were thinking about 5-7-5, I'd probably cause an accident.
By the way. Is it possible to write poetry while riding a horse?
Was it someone who was extremely good at handling horses,
or is it possible if you are on the vast, vast plains of China...?


In the end, maybe walking is the best time.
Watch out for cars and motorcycles.

~Bonus~

○ The school route is brighter now that the coldest days have passed
　It's only a little bit at a time, but I feel like the mornings are brighter and the evenings are getting later. Just that makes me feel energetic.
Spring is not far away! (When I was typing this just now, it converted to 'spring chili pepper'. What is that?)

○ Bundled up in layers, the sparrows and I on the morning path
　At first, I thought [sparrow] was a seasonal word, but it seems sparrow alone isn't a seasonal word, and surprisingly [bundled up/tsukibure] is the seasonal word (according to an internet search). I also like the word 'fukura-suzume' (fluffed-up sparrow) because the sound is cute (fukura-suzume is a winter seasonal word), but after wondering what to do, I realized that it's actually me who is cold and puffed up.

○ The child is a rabbit, running at full speed with the morning sun at his back
　It seems [rabbit] is a winter seasonal word. I saw many on New Year's cards, so I'm glad I could include it. My boys (especially the second son) are also a bit like Peter Rabbit.

Now that I've come this far, I think I'll try my best at senryu too.

#PolarBearHaiku