haikaiTALKS: a saturday gathering! 5th October

haikaiTALKS: Names of the Full Moon | a saturday gathering_under the banyan tree

host: Lev Hart 5th October 2024

haikaiTALKS: a saturday gathering_under the banyan tree

Names of the Full Moon

Your host for haikaiTALKS Lev Hart

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Names of the Full Moon

In C.X. Turner’s haiku, “wolf moon” is a reference to the first full moon of the year, making it a winter kigo:

       wind echoing her grief wolf moon

       (HAIKUsutradhar, Jan. 12, 2024.)

Themes connected to Winter in haiku, according to Jane Reichhold, include grief for the dead and weeping. These themes complement, “wind echoing her grief.” In the context of "wolf moon," a woman appears to be grieving for someone who has died, and she is howling like a wolf in her grief. The woman is consumed by grief, as if by a wolf. The kigo is not is not merely a time stamp, or a garnish, for the rest of the verse. The interrelation of the kigo with the rest of the verse --- the toriawase --- is everything.

The Wolf Moon is one of a list of names for the full moon, mostly drawn from Celtic tradition and North American native tradition, that has piqued the interest of English-language haiku poets. Chances are that you have seen some of these names used as kigo in haiku journals:

       January            Wolf Moon, Old Moon, Moon After Yule

       February          Snow Moon, Hunger Moon

       March              Worm Moon, Sap Moon, Crow Moon, Lenten Moon

       April                Grass Moon, Egg Moon, Pink Moon

       May                Flower Moon, Planting Moon, Milk Moon

       June                Rose Moon, Flower Moon, Strawberry Moon

       July                 Buck Moon, Thunder Moon, Hay Moon

       August            Green Corn Moon, Grain Moon, Sturgeon Moon

       September      Fruit Moon, Harvest Moon

       October         Harvest Moon, Hunter’s Moon

       November      Hunter’s Moon, Frosty Moon, Beaver Moon

       December       Cold Moon, Moon Before Yule, Long Night Moon

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to write two haiku, using names from the list as kigo. If you want to find out more about the names of the full moon, click:

https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/full-moon-names/#:~:text=North%20American%20full%20moon%20names%20by%20month%3A%20January%3A,Moon%20March%3A%20Sap%20Moon%2C%20Crow%20Moon%2C%20Lenten%20Moon

If you want to find out more about the themes connected to each of the four seasons, click the following link and search the PDF for “spring moods,” “summer moods,” “autumn moods,” and, “winter moods”:

https://thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/original/7fb6654a1dfd1afef97369da920530f8.pdf

If nothing on the list tickles your fancy, you can choose “spring moon,” “summer moon,” “winter moon,” or the autumn moon as your kigo. Remember that there is no need to say, “autumn moon.” Haiku tradition assumes that all references to the moon are autumnal, unless otherwise specified.

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Thank you for doing this for us, Lev.

Members,

Please give your feedback on others' commentary and poems too. _()_

This is an exciting phase for haikaiTALKS! Have fun! Keep writing and commenting! _kala