Hello. I am most happy to welcome you to Haibun Monday. I trust you all have had a good week and are looking forward to a good week ahead. Summer is nearly past but the sky is still glorious above us!

Today, I would like for you to write your haibun about the day sky – from dawn to dusk and any time in between. The Japanese have many wonderful names for clouds and the sky: sora is the word for sky. Haru, aki, natsu, and fuyu are the words for spring, autumn, summer, and winter. So a summer sky would be natsu no sora. The word kumo is cloud. There are many names for clouds: iwashigumo is sardine or mackeral clouds, nyûdôgumo are novice monk clouds, ukigumo are drifting clouds or, impermanence, yaekumo are eightfold-clouds or even more poetically, double blooming cherry.

I have included some pictures of clouds for your inspiration. All of them are mine and are copyrighted. If you choose to use one or more, please give me credit and say copyright by Kanzensakura and used by permission.

And here are some quotes to inspire you as well:
There is the sky, which is all men’s together. Euripides
You must not blame me if I do talk to the clouds. ~Henry David Thoreau
There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds. ~G.K. Chesterton
A cloudless plain blue sky is like a flowerless garden. ~Terri Guillemets
The clouds, — the only birds that never sleep. ~Victor Hugo
Only from the heart can you touch the sky. ~Rumi

From you I am requesting a haibun of one paragraph and one paragraph only. Please make this tight and of course, it is non-fiction. Write about the sky –
the sky the day you were married, a sky from a childhood memory, lying in the grass and looking up at the clouds, a rainy sky, a snowy sky, any daytime sky.  End the haibun with a nature based haiku.

Whether or not you have posted on dVerse before, you will need to please:
– Link back to dVerse.  This is important so others can follow you here and read as well as perhaps post their own haibun about sky.
– Write your poem and link it to Mr. Linky blow
–  Visit other poems linked by other poets and read and comment, especially if they read and commented on your haibun.
– Have fun sky gazing and writing about the sky!

Toni Spencer (hayesspencer, kanzensakura) has studied, read, and written Japanese poetic forms for almost 40 years. She is still learning how to do it correctly!