summer solstice?
the Shiraz
we’ve been waiting to open

Published by

Alexa Selph

Alexa Selph is a native Atlantan, where she works as a freelance book editor and teaches poetry in the adult education program at Emory University. Her poems have been published in Poetry, Smartish Pace, Hummingbird and Modern Haiku, among others.

12 thoughts on “”

  1. Enjoyed your haiku!

    Shiraz, the fifth most populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars Province, but known to most Westerners as a grape for wine:

    Syrah or Shiraz is a dark-skinned grape grown throughout the world and used primarily to produce red wine.

    Syrah is used as a varietal and is also blended. Following several years of strong planting, Syrah was estimated in 2004 to be the world's 7th most grown grape at 142,600 hectares (352,000 acres).

    DNA profiling in 1999 found Syrah to be the offspring of two obscure grapes from southeastern France, Dureza and Mondeuse blanche.

    Legends of Syrah's origins come from one of its synonyms – Shiraz. Because Shiraz, the very old city in Iran (1 hour far from Persepolis the Achaemenid Empire residence), produced the well-known Shirazi wine, legends claim the Syrah grape originated in Shiraz and then was brought to Rhône.

    Source: wikipedia

    I associate white wine with Summer, but I'm a sucker for the red stuff even in the current season.

    All I can do is toast your haiku in the hot British summer (no irony this time).

    Alan

    1. Alan,
      Thank you for your kind words, and for clarifying the (possible) Shiraz/Syrah connection!

      etymology—
      where roots
      meet sunlight

  2. Beautiful Alexa – Love the sense of longing present here as well as the engagement of the senses. Thank you for this haiku. I'm afraid I've slipped into gin and tonic mode but I will open a bottle of wine in honor of your haiku tonight!

  3. Ah… A delightfully sensuous poem.
    I am enjoying savouring the sounds, reading it aloud a few times.

    Here in Australia we have just passed the winter solstice, and it is cold. But your verse seems to carry with it a warming richness from the northern climes.

    Cheers!

    Strider

  4. nice words.. every culture has its folks and rhymes.. we do have to about spring and summer solstice.. nicely old folklore and rhymes representing our culture and area.. very nice thumbs up for the writer..

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