The prompt today is about small creatures. Our host presents us with Issa`s Giddy Grasshopper as our first inspiration:

giddy grasshopper
take care…do not leap and crush
these pearls of dewdrop
© Issa (source)

then Basho`s haiku here is another inspiration; I am quite partial to this one.

how pitiful!
underneath the helmet
a cricket chirping.
© Basho (Tr. Ueda)

The goal of this new feature is to write haiku about little creatures and more importantly to take notice of your surroundings.

Our host has written “Little Creatures” haiku:

deep silence
this lazy summer evening –
song of a cricket
© Chèvrefeuille

Young children seem so fascinated by nature`s tiny creatures. My son would look at ants working busily for hours…one tiny ant hill and he would cry inconsolably if someone stepped on that hill or any insect. I love how children teach us adults or many times remind us of what we once found important in life.

I remember as a young child spending hours in the field behind my house searching for grasshoppers. My mother was a hairdresser and she would put me outside to play which sure was better than going for a nap. Even in those days as a young child I hated going to bed.

I would jump, startled, if one jumped by me, then I would follow it, chasing it like a hunter. It would tease me regularly, keeping me busy most of the afternoon. Once I caught it, I would cup it in my two hands to make sure it would not get away and ask it to give me molasses. Okay, I had no clue at 4 and 5 years old what the darn thing did but either it was scared and it pooped out of fear or it had no problems of “irregularity” (see me chuckle here. Almost every summer afternoon, I would spend hours searching, under the hot sun accompanied by the piercing sound of crickets.

–

afternoon quest
child stoops low in the field
grasshopper jumps

–

grasshopper jumps
she holds it gingerly
whispering
“give me some molasses
come on grasshopper friend.”

–

she giggles
grasshopper tickles her hand
ooops,it jumps away

–

rests under the elm
mother nature’s lullaby,
crickets chirrup

(c) Tournesol

Posted originally by Cheryl-Lynn at Tournesol dans un Jardin 2014/08/17

Submitted for Carpe Diem’s Little Creatures #1 Issa’s “giddy grasshopper”