In celebration not only of the coolest holiday season but also of the arrival of the winter solstice on Monday, December 21st, A Motley Vision’s companion blog Wilderness Interface Zone has launched a haiku chain, an open thread whereon haiku-ers might skip and dance together in 17-syllable jigs.
My American Heritage Dictionary tells me that “haiku” comes from Japanese hai, “amusement” (from a middle Chinese word) and ku, “sentence” (also from middle Chinese). For such small parcels of language, they pack tightly, which makes them them linguistic jacks-in-the-boxes, bursting out big to surprise and delight.
Also, haiku can be restorative, in the way that concentration on small things, like a spider’s web or light on snow, can cool the mind with beauty or open it up in connexion.
But haiku is especially well suited for social mingling. The subjects at WIZ include wintertide, the happy lengthening of the day that follows the solstice, Christmas, the beauty of the moment, the turn of the weather–anything related to winterality. So if ye have a mind to, come over and toss in your 17-syllables’ worth.
Happy Solar New Year! Hurrah for the lengthening of the light!
A Motley Vision 