Weeks 23-24: Season Words

On Mark’s Season Words blog for the 23rd week of the year, he mentions that there are two Solar Terms during this week. The Solar Term Grain Buds ends and the Solar Term Grain in Ear begins. It is the ninth Solar Term of the year and the third Solar Term of summer. This nomenclature of Solar Terms was created by farmers in ancient China.

Two micro-seasons occur during this week, but Mark focused on “Praying Mantises Hatch.” He discusses the praying mantis including its life cycle before diving into haiku about insects from Basho, Issa, and others. To read them all, check out: https://seasonwords.com/2024/06/07/week-23-praying-mantises-hatch/

Mark also invites readers to write haiku referencing crawling insects. This pedometer geek poet wrote the following haiku:

May beetles…
now in flight
June bugs
~Nancy Brady, 2024

To be honest, this poet has not seen any June bugs yet this summer, but this past week, the mayflies were blown inland from Lake Erie, and they covered doors and siding. While we are used to the yearly phenomenon, our cat was not.

the cat freaks
about mayflies
–summer afternoon
~Nancy Brady, 2024

To read all the haiku written by many of Mark’s readers, check out the comments at the end of the blog.

Mark’s Week 24 blog post features the micro-season, “Rotten Grass Becomes Fireflies.” The 24th week covers the period from June 10 through June 16 (June 16th happens to be my sister’s birthday, but I digress) and is part of the Solar Term, Grain in Ear. Mangzhong (芒种) is the Chinese name for this season.

He then goes on to discuss fireflies, their life cycle, and their ability to make light. This pedometer geek poet discovered an interesting fact from this post about the firefly anatomy. Actually, all beetles, which includes the firefly. have a set of hardened front wings called elytra, which protect the flight wings. While the flight wings are not often visible in fireflies, they are visible on ladybugs when they take off. As much as I have studied invertebrate zoology in college, I never heard or read that term before. I checked out my invertebrate zoology book from my professor, and lo and behold, elytra was in the glossary! Thanks, Mark, for educating me!

Mark also shares haiku about fireflies or lightning bugs from Buson, Issa, Basho, and Reichhold before inviting his readers to write haiku or senryu referencing fireflies.

This pedometer geek poet wrote the following haiku for the prompt:

the firefly’s elytra covers
seldom seen wings
–summer night
~Nancy Brady, 2024

the fireflies’ repeated flashes
at the rock concert
–Blink-182
~Nancy Brady, 2024

in the tall grass
lightning bugs flash
–the setting sun
~Nancy Brady, 2024

To read the Season Words post for Week 24 as well as read the haiku and senryu written by some of his readers, check out: https://seasonwords.com/2024/06/14/week-24-rotten-grass-becomes-fireflies/