My Calendar of Haiku - October
The twinkling of distant cottage lights appear one by one on the hillsides; yellow stars, fallen from the violet, not-quite-black sky. Looking up a single brilliant diamond white star appears. A shooting star - fizzes - a firework across the darkening sky ...
lights twinkle
in darkening sky
a curlew calls
Around October time we get a Curlew or two feeding in the fields. Their calls at night one of the most haunting and beautiful. Evocative of the lonely moors and moonlit estuaries.
This, one of my early haiku, an old favourite. First published in my eChapbook, ‘Feathered Skies’, but which pops up here and there in other posts.
Another bird we sometimes hear at night, during October, is the Golden Plover ...
harvest moon
hidden by clouds
plovers call
Credits
The recordings in this post are used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. This and many more can be found at - Xeno-Canto
A lovely seasonal haibun about the call of birds welcoming October. Can visualize the lonely moors.
Thank you! I think the call of the Curlew is one of the most haunting and beautiful of bird calls. It really does remind me of the bleak and sometimes desolate moorlands.
Ah! Curlew! Your first verse takes me back many years to holidays in Yorkshire. The call also carries with it feelings of aloneness.
Funny isn’t it that at night their calls evoke feelings of aloneness, yet during the day their bubbling call is full of joy.
Indeed Clive! Very well said.
You are so descriptive in your writing.
Thank you so much 🙂
That’s so October! Month of my granddaughters’births so that brightens the skies but the trees up here are suddenly turning colour as the day shortens.
Thanks! Yes the colours at this time of year are stupendous – the maples here turning various shades of yellow, brown and red. And the blackthorn bushes heavy with ink-blue sloe.
Its lovely to hear the bubbling curlew again, clive. And perfect pair of haiku.
I was struggling to come up with something new Jane, when, on letting the dogs out during the evening, one of those serendipitous moments …
I’ve always loved the sound of the curlew. As you say – so evocative of certain spare landscapes and moments in time. Lovely haiku too. Thank you.
Thank you Josie! Except for when I was very very young, sleeping in a cot between my parents bed and the wall – the patterning swirls on the wallpaper gave me nightmares – I’ve always loved the night; it’s sights, sounds and smells. So different from the day. A time for adventures!
Yes!. How wonderful to be able to say with Robert Frost:
“I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.”
…and be happy with that.
To be in the night, and alone. It does not have to signify loneliness and sadness.
Gorgeous images of all those lights and the haunting bird calls, I’m used to hearing the curlew at the coast.
As a teenager I would often go out in the evening and watch the lights come in in distant cottages and farms across the valley. No curlew then but I would occasionally see Badgers and hear the bark of a fox. All very atmospheric.