Saturday, 5 November 2011

bonfire haiku

It's Bonfire Night in the UK today. People across the country will be lighting bonfires and setting off fireworks. If you are making a bonfire, make sure that no hedgehogs or other animals have made a home in the wood. The best thing is to build the bonfire just before you light it so that you can thoroughly check all the wood. If you're using a fire that you built earlier you need to turn over all the wood carefully to check that nothing is hiding in it. There's good advice here.

If you're setting off fireworks, make sure your pets are indoors, because they can be scared by the loud bangs.

Here are two haiku that I've written about Bonfire night:

sparks fly
from the bonfire -
star filled sky

previously published in Blithe Spirit, the journal of the British Haiku Society


fireworks -
the herring gulls
take flight

11 comments:

ashok said...

GOOD ONES J!

Mimi Foxmorton said...

I always know I'll find Beautiful Things when I come here! :)

Carol Steel said...

Terrific haiku...kudos to you, as usual.

Anonymous said...

Lovely haikus. Hope you'll be enjoying a star filled sky this evening.

Pomona said...

My dogs were in a bit of a state last night because of the noise - I am staying in tonight to be with them, poor things.

I like your haikus - I love the form.

Pomona x

Wild_Bill said...

A national bonfire night? How interesting! I liked the first haiku the best, mostly because I'm not a big fan of fireworks. Lovely!

Martin said...

I'll be bearing the second one in mind tonight, Juliet. We're going to an organised event on Southampton Water.

Larry Kollar said...

I didn't know there was a Bonfire Night. That's okay, I have plenty of scrap wood around here and a firepit table to burn it in, so no hedgehogs will be harmed in my celebration.

Love the haiku, as always!

Magyar said...

__I love the sparks, that become the stars.

HKatz said...

I especially like the ones about herring gulls taking flight at fireworks. Beautiful image.

Bonfire night sounds interesting; aside from bonfires and fireworks, any Guy Fawkes type traditions? (I read somewhere that people don't really bring out effigies anymore, but maybe there are some who do.)

Gabrielle Bryden said...

Love the haiku - good advice too! Bonfire night was banned in Australia years ago - seen as too dangerous - but I remember when I was a kid when we had them (plus I lived in England for a while and saw bonfire night then - a girl got her jumper on fire with a firecracker, one night, I recall). The most likely animal to find in a pile of wood over here would be a snake!