sore throat this morning –
the crocus just manages
to swallow a snowflake
Published by
Robert Naczas
Robert Naczas (na_czas at poczta.onet.pl) was born and presently lives in South-East Poland. He published the collection "Breathless" in 1999 and his poems were featured in The Anthology of Polish Haiku (NOZOMI 2001).
View all posts by Robert Naczas
6 thoughts on “”
I love this haiku. So often I’ve seen miserable weather and the crocus stand up to rain, sleet and snow. So brave and colourfull.
I like the connection between “sore throat”, presumably the poet’s, and the difficulty the crocus has in swallowing the snowflake. There is a real duality: it’s snowing and the poet is sick with a sore throat and swallowing the least of things is difficult, or the crocus is so tiny that the poet sees that a single snowflake would fill its “throat” to bursting.
Also, while the crocus is a very small flower, the image of it being barely large enough to encompass a single snowflake, itself tiny and ephemeral, makes me see the blossom as even smaller and more fragile in a vast universe of snow.
I love this haiku. So often I’ve seen miserable weather and the crocus stand up to rain, sleet and snow. So brave and colourfull.
I like the connection between “sore throat”, presumably the poet’s, and the difficulty the crocus has in swallowing the snowflake. There is a real duality: it’s snowing and the poet is sick with a sore throat and swallowing the least of things is difficult, or the crocus is so tiny that the poet sees that a single snowflake would fill its “throat” to bursting.
Also, while the crocus is a very small flower, the image of it being barely large enough to encompass a single snowflake, itself tiny and ephemeral, makes me see the blossom as even smaller and more fragile in a vast universe of snow.
A lot to think about in this. The misery of a head cold in winter, a crocus starved of the light that will open it fully, not bad, not bad at all.
on into winter
crocus, alias —
my solitary flower
beauty and the best
his tipped back
the bee harvesting honey
ear ache, this evening
the cicadae whispering
with the gallery
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by the way, i saw a live cicada at the memorial
tournament; actually, they were plentiful
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