HAIKU DIALOGUE – Under the March Moon – Full Worm Moon (1)
Under the March Moon with Guest Editor Carole MacRury
March (Martius) was named for Mars, the god of war, because this was the month when active military campaigns resumed after being interrupted by winter which was referred to as a ‘dead’ season. In fact, March was the first month of the year on the early Roman Calendar until around 450 BCE when January and February moved to the front putting March in third position where it remains in today’s Gregorian Calendar. Imagine how much easier it would be to make ‘resolutions’ in March with its visible signs of new beginnings and renewal, than in cold January. March comes in like a lion, goes out like a lamb. This reflects the transition from winter to spring and the changeable weather conditions particular to this month in the Northern Hemisphere. We’ll use three moon phases – Full Worm Moon, New Moon and Half Moon – to inspire our haiku. As we all write under our shared moon, feel free to use or not use the name of the moon phase in your haiku.
Below is Carole’s selection of poems on the theme of the Full Worm Moon:
My sincere thanks to everyone for submitting and trusting me with your poems. I spent hours reading and rereading 330 poems to select a list of favorites reflecting a variety of responses and styles. The challenge was to use the Worm Moon as inspiration to “write a haiku that reflects your life these first two weeks of spring”. As hoped, poets wrote on a variety of topics, some relating directly to the season, others to special holidays or happenings in their corner of the world. Along with sap moon, sugar moon, Lenten moon and crow moon, I received 97 poems on the Worm Moon alone, 23 of which made it onto this list. Repetition was an issue. I expect to see many of the poems I could not choose in future publications. Take note especially of the ‘sap moon’ poems, a word that connotes not just the moon name, but many other meanings as well. I hope, like me, you’ll smile, laugh and sigh at many of these poems. Please let your fellow poets know which poems resonated with you and why. Thank you for your generous response to the prompt. Stay tuned for commentary on 14 selected poems next week.
nightcrawler waiting for wormbeam
Sigrid Saradunn
Bar Harbor, Maine
sap moon
a flying fox
sucklesRavi Kiran
India
moonset
worm meets crow
goes westHelen Buckingham
Somerset, UK
worm moon
our resident robin
picks up breakfastMarion Clarke
Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland
as a single child
I pity the full moon
for being lonelyDeborah Karl-Brandt
Bonn, Germany
worm moon
a hunting owl wings
its shadowJeff Leong
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Plough Moon …
stretching across the farm fields
the front lineNatalia Kuznetsova
Russia
moonlight
nimble fingers glint
on the keyboardJohn Zheng
Mississippi USA
sap moon …
two neighbours
gossipingSamo Kreutz
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Worm Moon –
my buried dreams
resurfaceCaroline Ridley-Duff
United Kingdom
Bach strings
the ebb and the flow of
night shadowsJonathan English
Washington, DC
worm moon
craters pock the dark side
of my futureJohn Hawkhead
UK
sap moon…
I check again
mom’s pulseFlorin C. Ciobîcă
Romania
shining through
my freshly-washed windowpanes
worm moonOlivier Schopfer
Geneva, Switzerland
a box turtle’s pleasure
in his wiggling meal
–worm moonNancy Brady
Huron, Ohio, USA
first worm moon
he counts his packs of seeds
again and againWai Mei Wong
Toronto, Canada
plough moon
that tiny seed
of haikuSamo Kreutz
Ljubljana, Slovenia
burgundy crow moon
in the strawberry field
. . . Holi skyLakshmi Iyer
India
Plough Moon
the scent of jasmine
in the airTsanka Shishkova
Bulgaria
crow moon—
my dark thoughts
suddenly illuminatedAdele Evershed
Wilton, Connecticut
worm moon
periwinkles bloom
in a bomb craterArvinder Kaur
Chandigarh, India
buds breaking new ground plough moon
Lorraine A Padden
San Diego, CA USA
first buds
the spring
in her voiceSushama Kapur
India
crow moon the caw of spring
Anette Chaney
Harrison, Arkansas
lenten moon
the rethe wind raking
tater gravessimonj
UK
thawing snow
our sharp-edged footprints
start to softenAlan Peat
Biddulph, United Kingdom
worm moon
a robin sings
full throatedMeera Rehm
UK
worm moon thinning my inbox
Claire Vogel Camargo
USA
snow crust moon
the roof ice falls
with a thudValentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA
first snowdrops
I bid farewell
to my snowmanMona Iordan
Bucharest, Romania
finding the way
by moonlight—
cecropia mothKerry J Heckman
Seattle, WA
a frog peeks out
from the flower pot –
worm moonMilan Rajkumar
Imphal, India
counting days
till Baisakhi…
plough moon(The festival of Baisakhi marks the spring harvest (Rabi crops) in the northern parts of South Asia.)
Zahra Mughis
Lahore, Pakistan
full worm moon
the softness of catkins
takes me homeHelen Ogden
Pacific Grove, CA
Holi moon
her deep blush
under the gulaal(Gulaal: brightly coloured powder of a type thrown into the air and onto others)
Firdaus Parvez
India
new moon —
the promises i failed
to keepMona Bedi
Delhi, India
casting shadows
on the heavy wet snow
full worm moonSari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY, USA
full worm moon
at last I find
the right trailPadma Rajeswari
Mumbai, India
spring fever –
he sends himself
a love letterDan C. Iulian
România
moonlight on blossom everything is possible
Annie Wilson
Shropshire, UK
fifty Holi full moons
shine on you
sweet sixteen again(Holi full moon occurs every year in the Hindu month of Phalguna in March and is celebrated with colors)
Lakshman Bulusu
Princeton, NJ, USA
flickering light
the gulls following
a plough moonC.X.Turner
United Kingdom
around the pond
wind sweeps cattail fluff
spring cleaningElizabeth Shack
Illinois, USA
moonlit walk
Aurora Borealis
dancingMike Gallagher
Ireland
night fishing . . .
scattered stars in the shine
of the worm moonIvan Gaćina
Croatia
Crow Moon
above the advection fog –
hidden villageTomislav Maretić
Croatia
spring shower
the skylark
bubbles overHarrison Lightwater
Netherlands
as if nothing
the full moon
skinny dippingVandana Parashar
India
hummingbird
on the highest branch
sugar moonMariel Herbert
California, USA
so many poets
gazing at the moon . . .
lunar haloColette Kern
Southold, NY
After giving up Chardonnay
the moon
is my CommunionRon Scully
Burien, WA
dopo il corvo
cala in lento giostrare
piccola piumaafter the crow
slowly merry-go-rounding
little featherMaurizio Brancaleoni
Italy
full worm moon
the seedling trays
greeningAnn K. Schwader
Westminster, CO
I hear the earth worms
whisper
is tonight our nightJan Stretch
Victoria, Canada
full worm moon
Down Under
worms dig inCarol Reynolds
Australia
Sugar Moon
hanging over
my black coffeeAna Drobot
Romania
full worm moon–
the fisherman takes
the baitLafcadio Orlovsky
USA
a beetle larvae
peels back the bark of winter –
worm moonBonnie J Scherer
Alaska USA
the last
of the apples
worm moonNancy Orr
Lewiston, Maine USA
white narcissus –
around the moon
mare’s tailsAlan Harvey
Tacoma, WA
sap moon my blood vessels widen
Adrian Bouter
The Netherlands
spring rain
in a garden full of worms
two robins fightKeith Evetts
Thames Ditton UK
the cat waits
for her bedtime treat–
butter moonMaria Steyn
South Africa
mom’s full moon
my little brother is
coming soonChen Xiaoou
Kunming, China
midnight calm
the moon’s turn
to swimJohn Pappas
United States
the birch sap bucket is full worm moon
Marianne Sahlin
Sweden
button mushrooms
halves and quarters—
all the moons of the yearTony Williams
Scotland, UK
whiteout
somewhere over the snow
wind moonCynthia Anderson
Yucca Valley, California
spring moon
the tender light
insideLori Kiefer
London UK
Lenten moon
I give up
making promisesBona M. Santos
Los Angeles, CA
worm moon-
Roger Waters always
‘Waiting for the worms’Mihaela Iacob
Romania
full moon
in lake waters…
a heron stands guardRam Chandran
India
a rabbit
on the full moon
pareidoliaNitu Yumnam
India
fragrance born
under the wind moon
first plum blossomTeiichi Suzuki
Japan
pancake moon
stories the beggar feeds
her toddlerAnju Kishore
Chennai, India
the first daffodil shoot
pushes through frozen ground
swallow songLouise Hopewell
Australia
too heavy to lift
the weight of winter blankets
Sap MoonLiz Ann Winkler
White Rock, Canada
walking
the edge of sidewalks
primrosesRupa Anand
New Delhi, India
King tide . . .
now an islandbeach chair
petro c. k.
Seattle, Washington
March fourteenth I bake three moon pies
John S Green
Bellingham, Washington
burnt hills –
the plough moon hides
behind nimbus cloudsMilan Rajkumar
Imphal, India
so many names
for the spring moon
what does she call us?Kathleen Cain
Arvada CO USA
stench
of pig manure
first meltJerome Berglund
Minneapolis, Minnesota
worm moon
my new sneakers
ready for tomorrowKeiko Izawa
Japan
Join us next week for Carole’s commentary on additional poems, & our next prompt…
Guest Editor Carole MacRury resides in Point Roberts, Washington, a unique peninsula and border town that inspires her work. Her poems have won awards and been published worldwide, and her photographs have been featured on the covers of numerous poetry journals and anthologies. Her practice of contemplative photography along with an appreciation of haiku aesthetics helps deepen her awareness of the world around her. Both image and written word open her to the interconnectedness of all things, to surprise, mystery and a sense of wonder. She is the author of In the Company of Crows: Haiku and Tanka Between the Tides (Black Cat Press, 2008, 2nd Printing, 2018) and The Tang of Nasturtiums, an award-winning e-chapbook (Snapshot Press 2012).
Lori Zajkowski is the Post Manager for Haiku Dialogue. A novice haiku poet, she lives in New York City.
Managing Editor Katherine Munro lives in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, and publishes under the name kjmunro. She is Membership Secretary for Haiku Canada, and her debut poetry collection is contractions (Red Moon Press, 2019). Find her at: kjmunro1560.wordpress.com.
The Haiku Foundation reminds you that participation in our offerings assumes respectful and appropriate behavior from all parties. Please see our Code of Conduct policy.
Please note that all poems & images appearing in Haiku Dialogue may not be used elsewhere without express permission – copyright is retained by the creators. Please see our Copyright Policies.
This Post Has 43 Comments
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I had a big smile finding this wonderful short one liner by Sigrid
shining on the surface at the top of your wonderful collection, Carole!
(maybe the size of an early worm…!
nightcrawler waiting for wormbeam
Sigrid Saradunn,
Bar Harbor, Maine
love the invented word, and the bright
expectancy here, that we all feel peeking out and hoping for warmth and light in our dark world.
first worm moon
he counts his packs of seeds
again and again
Wai Mei Wong
Toronto, Canada
This lovely description by Wai Mei tempts me to look over his shoulder and see the packets what they are, and count with hi, The exciting before– the planting. I love the “again and again” of it Deep in every culture we find the urge to celebrate what is about to happen in Spring…
plough moon
that tiny seed
of haiku
Samo Kreutz
Ljubljana, Slovenia
This simple acknowledgement by Samo of what the season brings to haiku and what haiku brings to us….
planted in our minds and hearts, so essential and precious….
plough Moon …
stretching across the farm fields
the front line
Natalia Kuznetsova
Russia
beautifully written on this devastating topic…. highlighting that the devastation happens on the same ground used for growth and beauty… the use of the long center line and short “the front line” at the end is brilliant and so sad.
So many more beautiful haiku here… I am rereading and discovering continuous treasures. Thank you poets and Carole for your work and sensitive reading. We read through at our poets on site meetings to savor and share. Thanks to everyone at Haiku Foundation for the gift of our Haiku Dialogues!
Flipping through the list once again, I noticed Nancy Orr’s haiku.
the last
of the apples
worm moon
Nancy Orr
I can only imagine how tasty they must be…and maybe full of protein (wormy). Well done, Nancy, for that visual you created for me.
Such a wonderful set of Haiku. Thank you, all! I could smell the spring air and feel the awakening. Rebirth can be celebrated in so many ways…and the moon, it seems, is witness to them all.
I wanted to give a shout out to the haiku poets celebrating spring festivals. While autumn festivals are more prevalent in my part of the world, I enjoy armchair travel and felt the excitement of spring ..the planting…the first crops…hope for abundance and even a bit of “spring fever” in these haiku.
burgundy crow moon
in the strawberry field
. . . Holi sky
Lakshmi Iyer
India
fifty Holi full moons
shine on you
sweet sixteen again
(Holi full moon occurs every year in the Hindu month of Phalguna in March and is celebrated with colors)
Lakshman Bulusu
Princeton, NJ, USA
counting days
till Baisakhi…
plough moon
(The festival of Baisakhi marks the spring harvest (Rabi crops) in the northern parts of South Asia.)
Zahra Mughis
Lahore, Pakistan
Holi moon
her deep blush
under the gulaal
(Gulaal: brightly coloured powder of a type thrown into the air and onto others)
Firdaus Parvez
India
Sugar Moon
hanging over
my black coffee
Ana Drobot
Romania
I enjoyed this Haiku by Ana…the idea of someone who maybe stayed up all night and the moon is still kind of there or visible at or near dawn but now it is time for a cup of coffee and of course sugar always goes well with Coffee!
Thanks Carole for selecting my haiku. And kudos to all others whose poets here. I enjoyed the lovely haiku as shiny as the moon.
Among all well-written haiku, Jerome Berglund’s
stench
of pig manure
first melt
has done what an excellent haiku should convey. It offers a step-by-step experience with the faculties of senses. Stench suggests smell, pig manure suggests sight, and melt suggests sight or touch. The transferences of the senses effectively sets up a pigsty view.
Chen Xiaoou’s haiku
mom’s full moon
my little brother is
coming soon
is also a good one, which invites an imagination or visual association to juxtapose the roundness of the moon to pregnancy.
Thanks for these wonderful comments John. As you mention, incorporating one or two of the senses can really enrich the reader’s experience.
Moons of March
Sky looks down on earth
with the dark eye of a new moon,
spring winks at the stars.
Seeds shed winter’s shield
roots stretch in fertile dirt-
March howls for spring’s warmth.
Loam stirs, breaking free-
muddling nightcrawlers rise
under the worm moon.
Foretoken of spring
Marsh marigolds in damp fields-
Hoverflies delight.
Terrestrial tides collide,
rising high, but twice a year,
sun and moon poised.
A morrowless day
arriving on the equinox
perfectly balanced.
Sugar Moon shines down-
sweet maples release sap
as March winds breathe change.
Carole, thank you for serving as guest editor. There are so many lovely poems. Here are some that stood out to me.
worm moon
periwinkles bloom
in a bomb crater
Arvinder Kaur
Chandigarh, India
~ a sign of renewal and hope within the reminder of war. The surprise in the last line is very effective.
around the pond
wind sweeps cattail fluff
spring cleaning
Elizabeth Shack
Illinois, USA
~ there is always so much going on in and around a pond. I love the motion in this poem and the picture of nature performing spring cleaning.
spring rain
in a garden full of worms
two robins fight
Keith Evetts
Thames Ditton UK
~ this poem made me think of toddlers fighting over one toy block while the rest of the blocks lie scattered on the floor.
Thanks April, for commenting on a few of your favorites. I’m sure the poets appreciate it very much. All three of these have such strong imagery and focus.
Thank you, Carole, for including my poem. And many thanks to the editorial team for considering. Highly appreciated!
Congratulations to all the poets. Loved Kathleen Cain’s poem among the best ones.
so many names
for the spring moon
what does she call us?
A lot to contemplate and a lot is said in just a few words.
Thanks Nitu. Yes, Kathleen’s poem invites speculation. What I loved about it most…yet it is balanced by the clear image of a seasonal full worm moon.
Thanks Carole for selecting my haiku. And such lovely packet of beautiful haiku of the different names of the moon.
Thank you Lakshmi. I love the way your haiku incorporated the colors of a festival along with the natural colors of the moon and the strawberry fields. I enjoyed learning about and visualizing your festival as well. I did have to google it to learn more, but this is something I expect to do within our multi cultural haiku community.
half moon —
tailor fit cap
for the scarecrow
Many thanks, Carole for including my pancake moon in the list. Grateful also to the poets who have very kindly appreciated it. Besides the ku that have already been mentioned in the comments, the following caught my attention:
The beginning of a horror movie, this one.
worm moon
a hunting owl wings
its shadow
Jeff Leong
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
I feel the pain here and want to hold the poet’s hand. Wherever it is fought, a war is always unnecessary, always total destruction of everything we associate with life.
plough Moon …
stretching across the farm fields
the front line
Natalia Kuznetsova
Russia
I hear a song in this compact ku.
first buds
the spring
in her voice
Sushama Kapur
India
Thank you, editors for the mammoth task you all do week after week.
Thanks Anju.
Isn’t ‘wings its shadow’ a great phrase? I see owls and hawks hunt all the time where I live, and this is a perfect and unique description with connotations of impending death. Lovely commentary on all three Anju. I too, felt the beautiful but dreadful reality of Natalie’s haiku, with the steadfast moon as witness to war without taking sides.
Love that you feel the music in Sushama’s haiku! Me too, especially as ‘spring’ has multi-meanings which enrich one’s associations with not just the season, but the sound and energy of one’s voice.
pancake moon
stories the beggar feeds
her toddler
/
Anju Kishore
Chennai, India
/
A haiku can raise social awareness. This haiku is a reminder that many people in the world do not have enough to eat.
What a lovely read this morning, Carole. I loved all the places the same moon takes us. But I had to laugh when near the end I stumbled across
stench
of pig manure
first melt
Jerome Berglund
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Jerome conjured quite the sensory overload that, thankfully, doesn’t really happen where I live (Long Beach, CA).
Just realized I wasn’t clear. While we have pig manure, we never have a frozen winter that hides the scents under layers of ice and snow until that first melt. I applaud, Jerome, for not going with the awakening of senses that usually comes to mind with the beginning of spring.
Eavonka, so happy you chose to comment on Jerome’s poem! I laughed too, but along with my laugh was a really good dose of reality. I have on occasion been required to drive by a pig farm. When the weather begins to warm up, it can really produce a noxious smell! I have to drive by it and find it’s worse at night! I think they must open the doors to the sties or something. 🙂 But definitely Jerome’s poem hinted that as the snow melts away, many things are revealed, not always pleasant things. 😉
Thank you, Carole and congratulations to all contributing to this lovely selection. Some that really tickled my fancy include:
Maurizio Bancelioni’s image of the falling feather, the “piccolo piuma”. I loved the sound of the poem in the Italian, so thanks for giving us both;
Colette Kern’s poets “gazing at the moon”. Hard not to relate to and smile at that image;
Helen Ogden’s “softness of catkins” which also took me to my childhood home, conjuring up the image of the one that got stuck up my nose;
Natalia Kuznetsova’s plough moon with its sobering “front line” taking us from an idyllic farming landscape to the harsh realities of war;
Anju Kishore’s “pancake moon” also a very moving social reality beautifully revealed.
What a beautiful morning read. Thanks for the tag, Ed.
Thanks so much for your thoughtful comments Liz. . I’m sure the poets will appreciate knowing their poems resonated with you.
so many names
for the spring moon
what does she call us?
Kathleen Cain
Arvada CO USA
I liked Kathleen’s haiku because it had me questioning the moon’s gender. The realities of the moon, of course, now that we’ve walked and driven dune-buggies over part of its surface, is that of mountains, craters and lots of dust and rock. Scientists refer to the moon as ‘it’. In this prompt many of the moon names come from Native American mythology. Here is one fascinating fact I discovered: The Inuit sun and moon defies what could be thought of as the norm, and in their culture the moon is male, the sun female, with an interesting myth behind it. So, thanks Kathleen! Your haiku sent me on an interesting journey! In the German language, the moon Is male, but perhaps just linguistically. I’m curious now as to learning more about cultural myths and gender assignments given the moon.
Some really interesting selections Carole. I have selected this one for a second look:
pancake moon
stories the beggar feeds
her toddler
Anju Kishore
Chennai, India
I think this haiku/senryu is handled particularly well with a beggar’s child being fed stories to stave off hunger. A keen eye on a harsh reality under a flat impassive moon. Nice work.
Thanks for offering comments John. Yes, I agree with you and when it comes to all the names of the moon given by various cultures, this mother makes up a name that speaks to her and her child’s situation.
‘
So many lovely spring haiku. Milan Rajkumar’s caught my eye – the frog looking out of the flower pot, as if wondering if it’s warm outside.
a frog peeks out
from the flower pot –
worm moon
Milan Rajkumar
Imphal, India
thanks for offering comments Elizabeth. I agree, this cute image sits well against ‘worm moon’. Perhaps time to look for a snack too! 🙂
Carole, thanks for choosing my haiku. Congrats to all the other poets who were chosen. Thanks to Kathy, Lori, and the Haiku Foundation.
Thanks Valentina, and yes, my thanks too for Lori and KJ, who work so diligently behind the scenes.
thanks Carole & everyone! as I have said many times, this wouldn’t be much of a column without all of you! cheers, kj
Thank you so much for including my haiku!
You are welcome, Maurizio. Your haiku resonated with me because we have so many crows, and every spring, they steal songbird babies. I know it’s nature, but always sad to see those little feather’s spiral down. Of course, maybe it’s a baby crow feather, but I tend to see the other view.
dopo il corvo
cala in lento giostrare
piccola piuma
after the crow
slowly merry-go-rounding
little feather
Maurizio Brancaleoni
Italy
Well, your interpretation certainly adds a layer of meaning and a special significance to it. I think I might even like it more in light of your associations. Thank you for sharing your unique viewpoint, I’m always interested in how people interpret something, be it an image, a poem or even a single sentence/line.
This is the challenge when writing commentary. One brings their own experiences to the reading and interpretation of a poem and it may not be the poets! 🙂 I find feedback incredibly helpful to my own haiku to find out whether my poem communicated what I wanted it to. I’m glad you felt another layer had been added. I love the term ‘merry-go-round’, as to me it suggested a feather floating down from up high in a circular pattern. I see this as well with a leaf in autumn. Please feel free to share your own thoughts about your haiku that I may have missed.
Congratulations to all the poets. So many fantastic haiku here, but three caught my eye with my first read through. Kathleen Cain’s
so many names
for the spring moon
what does she call us?
Great question, Kathleen, and makes me wonder.
John S. Greene’s monoku linking Pi Day with moon pies. A bit of humor added to what has become a special day at school especially for math teachers.
Nitu Yumnam ‘s haiku
a rabbit
on the full moon
pareidolia
I recently learned that instead of a man in the moon as I was taught that in Australia and probably India the face of the moon has a rabbit on it. I wouldn’t have caught the reference without Norah,a writer friend of mine from Australia. She opened my eyes to it.
Thanks Carole for selecting my box turtle haiku for inclusion. I wasn’t sure if would make sense to any one other than me.
Nan, thanks for offering comments and like you I spent time pondering the gender of the moon and all that surrounds these names in the way of myths. I certainly enjoyed a pleasurable hour delving into the subject. Do read my comments on the poem to see what I discovered.
Loved your haiku for spring Nancy. While box turtles don’t hibernate but rather go into a torpor in winter, the ‘wiggling meal’, spoke to me of this turtles emerging at last from this torpor to begin to eat. A what better hint as to his first meal?
a box turtle’s pleasure
in his wiggling meal
–worm moon
Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio, USA
Nancy, sorry for the “Nan”, I meant to say Nancy! 🙂
Carole,
My reason to apologize at all. Although my name is technically Nancy, I prefer to be called Nan. Some, if not most of my writer, friends call me Nan, and I often sign off posts with that.
Congrats on having the haiku of the day today!
Thanks Nan!
Thank you Carole for including my haiku and congratulations to all the poets here! I especially love this haiku. In my mind, the heaviness of winter blankets equates to the heavy, wet snow in March which I was writing about (and attempting to shovel a few days ago). Liz’s haiku is very moving and captures the seasonal transition perfectly in my heart and mind. I also appreciate learning these other names for the March moon, some of which are new to me.
too heavy to lift
the weight of winter blankets
Sap Moon
Liz Ann Winkler
White Rock, Canada
casting shadows
on the heavy wet snow
full worm moon
Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY, USA
Thanks for commenting on Elizabeth’s haiku Sari. I can see why it resonated with you. Your own haiku address the mood of ‘weight’ as well, even if not spoken directly.. I mentioned in my blurb for poets to look at the haiku using sap, which Elizabeth has used so very well in her haiku. While sap may be considered a fluid, as well as a name for the moon in regards to trees giving up their sap, this haiku has extra connotations that work directly with feeling the weight of winter. Sap also suggests a loss of energy, to weaken. Love the English language and its multiple meanings.
Thank you, Sari – I’m glad my poem resonated with you. I love your image of moon shadows on wet snow. There is a real sparkle to the scene in my mind. The heaviness of a snow blanket is something I can certainly relate to in your poem as I live on the west coast, often called the Wet Coast. Fortunately snow doesn’t often last long and we just wait for the rains to do the snow removal while we stay tucked in bed!