Week 27: “Crow-Dipper Sprouts”

July 01-  July 07 is the 27th week of 2024.  This week, we remain in the Solar Term of Summer Solstice (June 21 – July 06).  The micro-season for this week is “Crow-Dipper Sprouts” (July 2- July 06).

Issa, Buson, Mills, Clausen, and Reichhold wrote the poems selected for this week.

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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⁾

Summer Solstice

Summer Solstice is the tenth Solar Term of the year and the fourth Solar Term of Summer. Xiazhi (夏至) is the Chinese name for this season. Xiazhi means “heat is to come”,⁽²⁾ which acknowledges that Summer Solstice is just the beginning of the warm weather, the real heat comes mid-July to mid-August.

Seasonal Food: Noodles

During the summer solstice, when the newly harvested wheat is available, eating chilled noodles is a way to celebrate the harvest. There is an old saying, “eat dumplings on the Winter Solstice and eat noodles on Summer Solstice”.⁽³⁾

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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 “Crow-dipper Sprouts” (July 2- July 06).

The Crow-dipper

Crow-dipper, also known as Pinellia ternata, is native to China, Japan, and Korea but has become invasive in parts of North America and Europe. It’s sometimes referred to as “Green Dragon” and is occasionally mistaken for Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum).

Pinellia ternata belongs to the Araceae family, which encompasses over 4,000 species across more than 140 genera. This family, also known as the Arum family, is characterized by flowers arranged on a structure called a spadix. The spadix consists of small flowers clustered around a central stem and is often accompanied by a spathe, a leaf-like bract that may partially enclose the spadix. In some Araceae plants, the spathe can be large and vividly colored. 

Other plants in this family include the Peace Lily and Titan arum, also known as the corpse flower. ^(6,7) 

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Astronomical Season

July 07, the last day of week 27.  July 07 is 17 days past the summer solstice and 77 days until the Autumn Equinox (September 22, 2024).  

July’s New Moon

July’s new Moon is on July 05, 2024.  A new Moon is when the Moon is directly between the Earth and the Sun.  This puts the Moon’s shadow toward the Earth making it difficult for us to see.

If we look at the field of astrology, we find that June’s new moon coincides with the astrological sign of Cancer (June 22 – July 22). Jill Wintersteen, a columnist for Yoga Journal, explains:  

“The Cancer new Moon calls for inner contemplation. This new Moon is about our subjective experience with the world, meaning the way we interpret things, the conversations we have with ourselves, and how much we allow ourselves to open to the magic of the Universe. . . . Be open to receiving the visions and information coming to you instead of creating them. Feel your way through this new Moon. Allow it to teach you something new about yourself, your life, and your path.”⁽⁸⁾

If you want to learn more about June’s new Moon and the field of astrology, read Wintersteen’s full article.

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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

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This Week’s Kigo

According to the World Kigo Database by Dr. Gabi Greves, “crow-dipper” is a mid-summer plant. While “lily” or “Daylily”, a relative of the crow-dipper, is a late summer kigo. 

In The Five Hundred Essential Japanese Season Words selected by Kenkichi Yamamoto “lily” is a relevant mid-summer kigo.  Crow-dipper isn’t listed.

In Jane Reichhold’s A Dictionary of Haiku, “lilies”, “water lily” and  “calla lily” are all summer kigo. 

This week, we also celebrated the 4th of July in the United States.  Reichhold lists the “Fourth of July” as summer kigo in the Occasion category.  Kenkichi Yamamoto has “fireworks” listed summer kigo in the Humanities category.  

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

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Issa

evening gloom--
a fawn's spots
on the lily
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

all stretched out
the dog naps
in the lilies
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

against the mountain pine
they're blown...
lilies
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

Buson

Early lilies
casually arranged
the valley’s hermitage
(translated by Allan Persinger)

Waterlilies
both halves blooming
in the rain
(translated by Allan Persinger)

David Mills

orphaned duckling
sticking close
to the water lily

Tom Clausen

the damsel fly leaving
the lily again and again
only to return

Reichhold

two crows
and a sea gull having someone
else's picnic

each day
celebrated by lilies
opening

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Haiku invitation

This week’s haiku invitation is to write a haiku or senryu about any type of lily.

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

Formatting Note:  To eliminate the spaces between the lines of your haiku, hit shift-enter at the end of the line.  For example,

one (shift-enter)
line two (shift-enter)
the third line (shift-enter)

Thanks to LaMon for sharing these instructions!

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Thank You!

About the Haiku

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. Mills and Clausen’s haiku were retrieved from Haiku Enlightenment by Gabriel Rosenstock.

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 Summer Solstice”. ChinaDaily.com
4. 72 Seasons App
5. “Japan’s 72 Microseasons”; Nippon.com
6. “Pinellia ternata”; Wikipedia
7. “Araceae”: Wikipedia
8. Wintersteen, Jill. “What the New Moon in Cancer Means for You”. Yoga Journal