Week 21:  Silkworms and A Flower Moon

May 20 – May 26 is the 21st week of 2024.  This week, we are in the Solar Term of Grain Buds (May 20 – June 04), and the micro-season of “Silkworms Start Feasting on Mulberry Leaves” (May 21 – May 25).

Basho, Issa, Buson, Reichhold, and Kerouac wrote the poems selected for this week.  

The 24 Solar Terms 

The 24 solar terms were created by farmers in ancient China  (206 BCE and 24 CE) to help guide their agricultural activities. Each solar term is 15 days long and is based on the climate around Xi’an, the capital of China during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE to 220 CE). (1)

Grain Buds

Grain Buds is the eighth Solar Term of the year and the second Solar Term of Summer. Xiaoman (小满) is the Chinese name for this season. Xiaoman means “The seeds of summer harvest crops begin to bear fruits and their seeds are full, though they are not ripe yet.”(2) Lesser Fullness of Grain is an alternative translation of this Solar Term. 

Seasonal Food: Fish

Grain Buds is a good time for fishing. Because there is heavy rain at this time, the rivers are full and it is easy to harvest fish and shrimp. “A heavy rainfall makes the river full” is a traditional saying acknowledging the rising water and abundance of fish.(3)

The 72 Seasons

The 72-season calendar was established in 1685 by Japanese astronomer Shibukawa Shunkai.  Each season lasts for about 5 days and offers “a poetic journey through the Japanese year in which the land awakens and blooms with life and activity before returning to slumber.”(4)

The micro-season for this week is “Silkworms Start Feasting on Mulberry Leaves” (May 21 – May 25).

The Silkworm

The silkworm is the larva of the domestic silkmoth (Bombyx mori). Once hatched the silkworm will continuously eat until it has molted four times, after which it enters the pupa, or cocoon, stage. The silkworm’s favorite food is the white mulberry, and it takes about 45 days of feeding for the silkworm to transition to the cocoon.(6,7)

The silkworm makes its cocoon out of one continuous white or yellow strand of silk.  This silk strand can be up to 1,000 yards long.(7) For humans to use this silk, they will either steam or use hot air to kill the pupa. By steaming out the pupa, the insect dies while the silk remains intact and can be harvested.(6,7)

Astronomical Season

May 26, the last day of week 21.  May 26 is 68 days past the spring equinox and 25 days until the summer solstice (June 20, 2024).  

May’s Full Moon

May’s full Moon arrived on May 23.  This full moon is sometimes referred to as the Flower Moon.

Catherine Boeckmann at The Farmer’s Almanac explains that Flower Moon comes from the abundant flowers growing across North America.  The term Flower Moon originates with the Algonquin people.

Other names for April’s full moon include:

  • Budding Moon from the Cree
  • Frog Moon from the Cree
  • Planting Moon for the Dakota and Lakota
  • Moon of the Shedding Ponies from the Oglala

For more information about the Flower Moon, read Boekmann’s full article.

Haiku and Kigo 

The kigo, or season word, is one of the key parts of the haiku.  The Yuki Teikei Haiku Society provides us with the following explanation for why we use kigo in haiku. 

“A kigo is a poetic device used in haiku to denote a season; it’s a powerful word or phrase that can conjure up many allusions, historical references, spiritual meanings, and/or cultural traditions. Its use in haiku, a poem of few words, is especially effective because of this power to expand its meaning beyond the literal and to create a larger aura of seasonal mood, historical/ literary context, and/or cultural implications.”(9)

Visit The Haiku Foundation’s “New To Haiku: What is a Kigo?” for more information

This Week’s Kigo

In The Five Hundred Essential Japanese Season Words selected by Kenkichi Yamamoto “silkworm cocoon”, “fly”, “mosquito” and “ant” are relevant insect-related kigo. 

 In Jane Reichhold’s A Dictionary of Haiku, “caterpillar”, “larva”, and “moth” are all relevant kigo.  

Looking at the World Kigo Database by Dr. Gabi Greves, “silkworm” (kaiko) is a late spring kigo.  “Cocoon” is an early summer kigo, and “Silkworm Becoming a Moth” is a mid-summer kigo. 

With all this in mind, let’s read some haiku. 

Basho

early summer rain 
a silkworm sickens 
on a mulberry farm 
(translated by Jane Reichhold) 
crawl out! 
beneath the silkworm shed 
the croak of a toad 
(translated by Michael Haldane)
In this hermitage, 
all the mosquitoes are small - 
what a lovely gift! 
(translated by Sam Hamill)

Issa

the whole house
pays them court...
silkworms
(translated by David G. Lanoue)
one cocoon
in the stone Buddha's
lap
(translated by David G. Lanoue)
hey toad
the caterpillar will grow
and fly away!
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

Buson

Suspended lightening — 
Hachijuu Island’s hanging 
yellow silk
(translated by Allan Persinger)

Reichhold

my eye
the spot on the larva's back
where wings emerge
bubbles
larva in pond scum
fly away

Kerouac

Two ants hurry
   to catch up
With lonely Joe

Haiku Invitation

This week’s haiku invitation is to write a haiku or senryu about a seasonal insect.

Share your haiku in the comments below, or post on your page and link back. I can’t wait to read what you write! 

You can support this newsletter work by donating at “Buy Me a Coffee” or shopping at our bookstore.

Thank You!

About the Haiku

Basho’s haiku were retrieved from “Matsuo Bashō’s haiku poems in romanized Japanese with English translations” Editor: Gábor Terebess.  Issa’s haiku were retrieved from David G. Lanoue’s Haiku Guy. Buson’s haiku was retrieved from Foxfire: the Selected Poems of Yosa Buson, a Translation by Allan Persinger. Jane Reichhold’s haiku were retrieved from the Dictionary of Haiku. Kerouac’s haiku was retrieved from Kerouac’s Book of Haikus.

  1. “The 24 Solar Terms”; China Educational Tours
  2. “6 Solar Terms of Summer”; China Educational Tours
  3. “24 Solar Terms: 6 things you may not know about Grain Buds”; ChinaDaily.com
  4. 72 Seasons App
  5. “Japan’s 72 Microseasons”; Nippon.com
  6. “Bombyx mori”; Wikipedia 
  7. “Silkworm moth”; Britannica.com
  8. “Flower Moon: Full Moon in May 2024”; Almanac.org

105 thoughts on “Week 21:  Silkworms and A Flower Moon”

Add yours

  1. Pingback: 24.5.24 — Haiku – BenT
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  4. Thanks Mark for another informative Friday. Basho’s hermitage haiku is my favorite today. Here is my contribution:

    under flower moon:
    insects multiply
    patiently skinks wait

    Peace,
    LaMon

    Reply

    2. Hi LaMon,
      I was a little surprised that I was able to find so many haiku that could work for this season! Glad you enjoyed Basho’s.
      I, like Nan, don’t think I have ever seen skink is a haiku! I also really enjoy the relationship between L1 and L2.

      Reply

      1. Hi LaMon, what a great haiku.  It never occurred to me that insects need the full moon’s light. I really like the last line too.

      2. Thanks Maddy, I reread my haiku and wonder what the connection is between L1 and L2 🙂 I was thinking more about the time of year when insects (and skinks) seem to increase in number after the slow winter. But maybe it can mean they multiply in the sense that more can be seen under a full moon. Skinks would appreciate that!

      3. Thanks to Mark and Nan for the kind complements. It is actually my second skink haiku. Here is my first some maybe 2 or 3 years ago:

        warm windy spring day—

        blue tailed plestiodon skink

        slinks across the deck

        Naming the type skink makes it hard to read, so it’s not that good. I just liked the sound of skink and slinks.

        Peace,
        LaMon

  5. Thank you as always for sharing the caringly curated info and insightful inspo Mark. A weekly treat that is much appreciated in the feed. <33

    Reply

    2. Hi Ashley, I have become a big fan of the Almanac. So much good stuff in there! I hope all is well on the other side of ocean.

      Reply

      1. All okay for now but politics is gearing up for an election here on 4th July! I don’t know whether that’s a good day or not! The future is looking chaotic, grim even!

        My writing has stopped, perhaps because I’ve been working in our little garden. The birds are VERY noisy this week, lots of youngsters demanding food.

        Hoping your snow has retreated & all well with you.

      2. Hi Ashley, I have also found writing a little more difficult with all the outdoor activities available now that the snow has melted.
        We have had a stellar spring for birdwatching. Many of the same returning birds, and so new (to me) species.
        Happy gardening!

  7. Pingback: …Flower Moon… 1p XXIV nd 5.24 – Jules Pens Some Gems…

      1. Hi Jules,

        I love this poem, 

        “Dahlias
        Tiger Lilies and
        peach Iris.”

        …the way you arranged the flowers and then the last line is “peach iris”.  I don’t think I have ever seen a peach iris before, at least not in a garden.

      2. While I don’t have a ‘moon’ garden per se… I imagine the flowers in the glow of the full moon 🙂

  9. Dragonfly on Power Cable

    …………………………………..

    you four-winged dragonfly

    showing yourself quietly, naked

    for a long hour

    then gently few away

    ……………………………………

    Yi Jing Cast based on the nature of the event (a dragonfly appearing) and its direction (at 10.30 from where I was sitting), with picture.

    At the end of doing the Reading, a truly huge hailstorm happened with stone the size of limes and plums. Then a day or so later I got an extraordinary invitation from afar about which to this day have mixed feelings (as intimated by Hexagram #44 and the Changing Line)

    They say dragonflies are messengers……

    Reply

    1. Hi Baron, Thanks for the link to your previous post. Very interesting as I don’t know very much, or anything, about the I Ching.

      Reply

  10. Cicadas scream as we drive past

    Warning lest we speed reckless into the future

    Warning lest we forget our noble past

    ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

    Cicadas urgent drone stops time

    As we speed through their darker woodland world

    soon rapidly reentering our brighter asphalt-paved futures

    ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

    many mosquitoes persistently whining, circling

    though thankfully outside the net

    keeping me awake in the wee hours…

    Reply

    1. Hi Baron,
      I really like “Cicadas scream” and the linking of L2 and L3. It feels like a call to awareness and mindfulness.

      Reply

      1. Hi Barron:

        I like all of these haiku, too. I like the last poem especially. I remember being kept awake when I was younger, growing up in Florida, from a mosquito’s whine. I don’t know anything about I Ching, either. I don’t know much about hexagrams, too. When I looked it up, I do like the idea that theoretically a five petal rose fits into the six points of the star. I look forward to more of these posts…I think it will start making more sense.

        It was a lovely image of the dragonfly.

  11. A mispelling leads to a change:

    ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

    you four-winged dragonfly

    showing yourself quietly, naked

    for a long hour

    then gently flying away

    Reply

    1. Enjoyed all of these haiku, and learning about the dragonfly as a messenger. Never heard that before. My favorite is probably the first (and edited) one. ~Nan

      Reply

  12. Another informative post, Mark. It’s hard to believe were over a third of the way through this year (not to mention the micro-seasons and Solar Terms). Here are haiku that reference seasonal insects:

    muffleheads

    on the windows and siding

    a crow laughs

    ~Nancy Brady, 2015

    published in A Hundred Gourds 5:1 in December 2015

    Muffleheads refer to midges. We’ve already had one hatching of them this spring.

    summer afternoon

    the honeybee attracted

    to her sunflower pin

    ~Nancy Brady, 2023

    published in Autumn Moon Summer 6.2 2023

    her life unravels

    in one long strand

    –silk cocoon

    ~Nancy Brady, 2024

    #offthecuff haiku (which probably needs editing)

    Reply

    1. Hi Nan, Wonderful! Muffleheads is a great word to have in a haiku. I also really like “her life unravels”. I am not sure it needs much editing from my point of view.

      Reply

      1. Hi Nan, I agree with Mark and Eavonka.  I love your last one, it’s marvelous! And your first one too is a lot of fun.  I do like that the bee is attracted to the sunflower pen in the second, a very charming poem!

      2. Thanks, Mark, for the compliments. As for muffleheads, that’s what the people around here affectionately call midges. Not sure why exactly, but I now call them that, too. When they get together for mating (for that it is why they hatch), they all rise into the air in the early evening and swarm making a humming sound (relative to their size, a loud humming sound). There are so many that sometimes it looks like smoke. In fact, the first time we saw them in the distance, we thought there was a fire. It wasn’t until we moved closer to the lake that we saw the “smoke” effect occurring in our back yard. ~Nan

      1. Thanks Maddy and Eavonka,

        As for the bee’s attraction, it works better in a haiku than when it happens in real life. Fortunately, no one was stung. Thanks for the kind words on my off-the-cuff haiku. I may have to edit it a bit to submit elsewhere though. Even the journals, who used to take those haiku that are not curated (sent and selected by an editor) yet are on blogs, are now getting pickier. Alas… ~Nan

      2. Hmm, Acorn is even taking uncurated poems now. I actually haven’t seen anyone change their position backwards except Failed Haiku (and they are only not taking previously published work now). I think you have so many places you could submit it.

      3. Really, Acorn is taking blog-published haiku now? The editor has never accepted anything from me before so don’t know if the fact i had it here first would make a difference. I’ll consider it, but then if I change a word or two, then technically is that a new (and therefore, unpublished) haiku? This inquiring mind wants to know.   ~Nan

      4. I consider this social media and not published as no editor has selected it (if Mark does chose one of mine, I do consider that published though). That’s why I said ‘uncurated’. As it’s a very specific blog it’s even less likely to be seen tbh.

        In other words, I have submitted poems I’ve written here everywhere, many have gotten published, and I haven’t had any issues.

      5. Thanks, Eavonka, for your opinion on uncurated haiku. It helps, truly. I am a little bit gun shy with putting up new haiku and then later submitting it to a journal editor. I have enough trouble with my submission files so that it is easier to put these in my files as “published” than risk the ire of editors. More than anything else, I enjoy writing haiku even if they never end up in a journal. The joy of writing supersedes publication although I do like being published.

        (If you can’t tell, I am way behind reading the emails that contain these comments.) ~Nan

      1. Baron,

        Thank you; that’s so kind of you to say. I have been going through old emails trying to clean out my emails and discovered your comment, which I hadn’t seen previously. Thank you again. ~Nan

  13. Hi Mark:  Thank you for this inspiring post.  I love all three of Issa’s poems, especially  “…in the stone Buddha’s lap…”   I really like that the seasonal food is fish!

    silkworm cocoon 

     made

     for peace

                     ~    ~   ~

    I saw this yesterday but actually it was a cherry tree

    two butterflies

     soar

    over the mulberry tree

                   ~     ~    ~

    flopped 

    on the bathroom floor

    my mortal enemy

    I took the cockroach in a cloth

    and gently placed him out of doors

                     ~    ~    ~

    flower moon

    my mother’s favorite

    mums 

    All the poems of our fellow poets are beautiful. 

    Reply

    1. Hi Maddy, What a great collection. I have read, and re-read “flower moon”. I like that one. “Silkworm cocoon” is also good. Especially if you think about the reason for the cocoon, and then think about how humans harvest the silk, there is great contrast there! Well done.

      Reply

    2. I’m enthralled by ‘flower moon’ because line is such a surprise and a great play on mother/mum.

      Reply

    3. Nicely written haiku, Madeleine, but I probably would squash the cockroach. I’m pretty much a pacifist, but they creep me out. I really like the peace one as well as the one about the mulberry tree. ~Nan

      Reply

      2. Hi Nan, that is quite understandable. Thank you for the lovely feedback! 🙂

    4. Maddy – I can’t reply to your comment at my piece – limited space; (peach and purple colored iris… not a peach iris per se).

      I save spiders that end up in the house…

      Fun verses this week 🙂

      Reply

      1. Hi Jules, right 🙂 That’s lovely! Me too, I’ve been designated as chief “spider saver” in our house, as I am the only one who tolerates and likes spiders here (but can totally understand people’s aversion:)

      4. Hi Jules, in response to your post above… the flowers in your garden sound beautiful, I would think especially in the moonlight. 🙂

    5. Hi Maddy,

      I enjoyed your poems all. Love the reference to “my mortal enemy” I can totally relate!

      Love the flower moon and reference to its illumination of the gardens at night.

      I too enjoyed Issa’s haiku  “…in the stone Buddha’s lap…” lots to unpack on meditation there.

      Reply

      1. Hi Suzette, thank you for relating! 🙂 I appreciate your lovely feedback, too. Yes, Issa’s poem resonates… and a great one to meditate on!

  14. I’m sorry I missed the last two weeks, but I was on vacation to see friends and family in beautiful British Columbia. So happy to return in such a wonderful season.

    feasting itself

    into a food coma

    this silkworm

    Reply

    1. Welcome back, Eavonka! So glad you were able to visit with friends and family in British Columbia!  It must have been wonderful. The silkworm in a food coma is an absolutely delightful poem–full of charm and humor. I really like the word “this” in the last line!

       

      Reply

      1. Yay, Maddy! I went back and forth over the ‘this’. I’m so glad I kept it. Thanks so much!

      1. So good to be back, Mark! I’m so glad you enjoyed ‘this’ poem. Hehehe

    4. Visit with family and friends are very good…And they often put us humans in food comas!

      I’ve got a purple Mulberry tree… not white berries… I wonder… I’ve seen some odd caterpillars in my yard. But probably not any silkworms.

      Reply

      1. Ooh, I’m going to believe you do have silkworms! How magical that would be.

      2. That is kind of you… I’ll have to look as the berries develop. “The silkworm moth, also known as the Bombyx mori, is a white butterfly that emerges from a cocoon after a silkworm larva transforms into a pupa over a period of two to three weeks…” I may have seen some like the butterfly in the image when I looked up what ‘it’ looked like? That would – apparently a few towns (about an hour over) did have land set aside to grow silkworms. Big industry in the 1830’s… might be a few left… 😀

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      2. Hi Adele:  this is a delightful haiku filled with lots of positive energy.  I can imagine someone singing it out loud for fun, as a lighthearted warning to a buzzing mosquito…a very lovely ‘ku! 🙂

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  21. Great insights Mark! Thank you for the delightful presentation of the silkworm’s life cycle and the names of the May 23 full moon.

    I love all the haikus you selected. My favorite is Issa’s

    “one cocoon

    in the stone Buddha’s

    lap”

    Reply
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