Tuesday 7 February 2012

haiku


a rustle in the reeds

vamoosed the wild pigs!

now nothing stirs


This is the final picture in this series of 5 photographs from the frozen lake in the Lobau.

Some of the unseen wild pigs may one day end up being simmered and stirred in the stewpot, hence the wordplay in the last line of the haiku. This is also a play on the apparent devastation seen in the photo for the pigs turn up (or stir) the earth with their snouts, even the frozen earth, to get to the roots, and so with the ground made loose the surrounding trees eventually fall.

Obviously too there's the third meaning of nothing stirs - nothing disturbs the silence. This reminds us that there was nothing moving in the reeds, not even a gentle breeze.

Vamoose is a Spanish verb which I though might add a little spice ;).


4 comments:

  1. As with all good poetry there has to be a multiplicity of meaning.

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  2. . . . and the pigs were shaken but not stirred ;)

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  3. Like the haiku a lot.

    We came across a bevvy of pigs in a wood on the shore of Coniston Water the other week.

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  4. Many thanks Dominic. They'd be the wives. I hope you weren't too *bevvied ;). There's a smashing pub called The Sun.


    bevy : a company of larks, quails, swans, roes or ladies

    for English students -

    * bevvied: drunk (from the Fr. beverage).

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