Winter and Summer Sedōka

a naked landscape
of icy geometry
black branches against grey sky

swirling skirts of mist
sharp scent of snow-covered pines
words float in white clouds of breath

Image result for a naked landscape of icy geometry black branches against grey sky swirling skirts of mist sharp scent of snow-covered pines words float in white clouds of breath
Image found on Pinterest

riotous colour
the ripening of cornfields
splash of yellow sunflowers

bees humming mantras
from honeysuckle to rose
blessing the summer garden

Image result for sunflowers in cornfields
Image found on Shutterstock

Kim M. Russell, 2018

My response to Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #21 Out Of The Box #3 Chōka and Sedōka (Winter / Summer) also linked to Poets United Poetry Pantry

For the meditation this weekend, Chèvrefeuille has chosen another ‘Out Of The Box’ and challenges us to create a winter poem and a summer poem, using the chōka or the sedōka form.

He explains that the chōka, ‘long poem’, is of indefinite length, formed of alternating lines of five and seven syllables, ending with an extra seven-syllable line; the shortest that exist have 7 lines long while the longest have 150.  The sedōka, or ‘head-repeated poem’, consists of two tercets of five, seven, and seven syllables each. An uncommon form, it was sometimes used for dialogues. Chōka and sedōka were seldom written after the 8th century.

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