Haiku

I entered the Base Haiku contest...and won first place for my age group!

Bits of sweet color
Tucked among bland winter weeks
Hanging Persimmons

Traditionally, persimmons (gaki) are peeled and hung up (usually under the eaves of houses) during fall and winter. The drying processes makes the hoshi gaki (hung persimmons) very sweet. The taste of the dried fruit is a bit like dates, with hints of honey and floral.

This is not the haiku I thought would win, if I won at all. However, this is the haiku that I struggled with and revised over and over, so I am very pleased it won. I would have been pleased if it had even placed.

Here are the other three haiku I submitted for the contest:

The Seventh Month starts
Swimming in a sea of clouds
Ends drowned in the heat

Flaming maple leaves
Drop away from black branches
Moments of our lives

Springtime fields beneath
The darkness of a new moon
A heart's deep secrets