Ladybird Haiku

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

horse chestnut shade
an aborted burr
drops at my feet

11 Comments:

At 3/8/06 4:23 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nicely captured.

 
At 3/8/06 6:19 AM, Blogger Masago said...

Very curious.

 
At 3/8/06 7:31 AM, Blogger The Site Administrator said...

Polona, I was originally going to ask you: Why is the burr aborted? And then I noted Vaughn Seward's comment: "Very curious", which seemed to indicate perplexity on his part as well.

Then I looked up the meaning of the word "burr" and saw that it pertained to "the rough, prickly case around the seeds of certain plants, such as the chestnut."

So it looks like you are creating a "haiku spark" between the "chestnut" shade of the horse and the "chestnut burr" that has been prematurely discarded by the tree and which has landed at your feet.

Did I get it right?

PS: I just got home from a philosophy class at university ... so I might be thinking too much here. Feel free to bang me on the head with a plank of wood if that is the case. Aurora obviously "got it".

 
At 3/8/06 7:48 AM, Blogger The Site Administrator said...

And I was up until 3am this morning reading Kierkegaard ... arrrghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

 
At 3/8/06 2:41 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hmmm: very nice
I am not good at this type of poem and admire those who are! :)

 
At 3/8/06 6:26 PM, Blogger Pat Paulk said...

And I thought it was paying homage!! Good one Polona!!

 
At 3/8/06 9:56 PM, Blogger polona said...

aurora, vaughn, karasu, charlie, silvermoon, and pat - thanks everyone for commenting.

i see this one is not clear enough, sorry about that.
i've been suffering from a severe case of the writers block virus (wich apparently shows in my last posts). this one, too, was from the recent archives.

the horse chestnut shade has nothing to do with the noble animal as some may have guessed.
a horse chestnut, a.k.a. buckeye (as i have learned), is a deciduous tree, native to the balkans area. the seeds, conkers, are protected by burs. it is so common here that it didn't occur to me that it may be unknown in other parts of the world.
it is not to be mistaken for the sweet chestnut (also european or spanish chestnut) which has edible nut-like seeds also growing in burs. some photos to follow :)

 
At 4/8/06 12:10 AM, Blogger polona said...

ah, karasu, i didn't answer your question!
as you know, haiku are open for interpretation, but i posted this with my writers block in mind, hence the aborted burr... no seed - no haiku...

 
At 4/8/06 12:37 AM, Blogger The Site Administrator said...

Heheheh ... I would never have guessed in a million years that "horse chestnut shade" was referring to the shade of a Horse Chestnut tree. Thanks for clearing that up. : )

 
At 4/8/06 2:08 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

*waving hand* I knew, I knew, what the poem was about! :) Really, Polona, it wasn't unclear to me. I think that it's a wonderful piece.

 
At 4/8/06 10:47 PM, Blogger polona said...

glad it's clear now, karasu :)


well, i've never doubted your wit, aurora! thanks again...

and since you seem so well informed, any idea where i can look for my awol muse?

 

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