re:Virals

re:Virals 167

Welcome to re:Virals, The Haiku Foundation’s weekly poem commentary feature on some of the finest haiku ever written in English. This week’s poem was

 
     winter sky the stop code of a crow
          — Cherie Hunter Day, sting medicine (2016)

Radhamani Sarma decodes:

Delighted to comment upon the haiku by Cherie Hunter Day that was chosen by Alan Summers.
Currently living in California, Cherie Hunter Day is widely published and just as any other haiku writer of rich potential, her flow in this piece stems from profound observation dipped in an effective image drawn from nature. A single-lined haiku highlighting the action/suspension of flight of a crow in the winter sky, giving a wider scope and room for readers to ruminate and complete.
All the five elements of Nature: Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Sky (the supreme creations of The Creator) undergo seasonal shifts and changes influencing humans, flora and fauna. The question arises: Why winter sky, and why not summer sky? Obviously, thick fog obstructing the visibility of birds in general. Or snowy clouds. Or even the sudden eruption of thunder in a cloudy sky.

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As this week’s winner, Radhamani gets to choose next week’s poem, which you’ll find below. We invite you to write a commentary to it. It may be as long or short, academic or spontaneous, serious or silly, public or personal as you like. We will select out-takes from the best of these. And the very best will be reproduced in its entirety and take its place as part of the THF Archives. Best of all, the winning commentator gets to choose the next poem for commentary.
Anyone can participate. A new poem will appear each Friday morning. Simply put your commentary in the Contact box by the following Tuesday midnight (Eastern US Time Zone). Please use the subject header “re:Virals” so we know what we’re looking at. We look forward to seeing some of your favorite poems — and finding out why!
 
re:Virals 167:

 
     scattered beer cans
     deer shoot across
     a lonesome gravel road     
     
          —James Babbs, Haikuniverse November 6th (2018)

This Post Has 6 Comments

    1. Thanks Paul,
      .
      As that’s next week’s commentary challenge, you could also send your comment via
      .
      https://www.thehaikufoundation.org/contact/
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      .
      Danny says:
      .

      “Anyone can participate. A new poem will appear each Friday morning. Simply put your commentary in the Contact box by the following Tuesday midnight (Eastern US Time Zone). Please use the subject header “re:Virals” so we know what we’re looking at. We look forward to seeing some of your favorite poems — and finding out why!”
      .
      .
      And you can nominate a favourite haiku for the week after when you send in your commentary, and if it’s chosen as the winning one, we get to comment on your choice, which would be cool! 🙂

  2. The color of the sky is the central visual focus of this haiku. The term “stop code” gives a clearer indication of what that color might be. When a computer running Windows encounters an error or bug, the program is stopped with a stop code. This phenomenon is experienced as the “blue screen of death.” For computer users, when we encounter this display, there’s a bit of a panic. That similar sense of shutdown was felt, when I saw a crow flying across the piercing blue winter sky.

  3. Dear esteemed poet,
    warm greetings! honored and humbled, by your encouraging words of appreciation and comments.

    ” why winter sky?”

    your take:

    “the winter light has its own feel and look about it in the Northern Hemisphere such as North America and the U.K. As a huge fan of crows worldwide, and seeing them go through the seasons in Britain, in particular, I loved the original and fresh take on the effect of crows against the winter light. 🙂”

    Very informative especially about winter light and crows . How worldwide crows are! It was such a pleasure reading over again and again this write by Cherie Hunter, all the more a wonderful selection by you.

    with regards
    S.Radhamani

  4. Dear Radhamani Sarma,
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    Thank you for your commentary, it is deeply appreciated.
    .
    “Why winter sky?”
    .
    The winter light has its own feel and look about it in the Northern Hemisphere such as North America and the U.K. As a huge fan of crows worldwide, and seeing them go through the seasons in Britain, in particular, I loved the original and fresh take on the effect of crows against the winter light. 🙂

    .
    .
    winter sky the stop code of a crow
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    — Cherie Hunter Day, sting medicine (2016)
    .
    .
    Everyone can enjoy her full collection in this free PDF:
    http://www.bonesjournal.com/books/Cherie_Hunter-Day-sting_medicine.pdf
    .
    .

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