when the winter chrysanthemums go,
there’s nothing to write about
but radishes.
-Basho
(translated by Robert Hass)
We have entered the micro-season of “The Common Self-Heal Sprouts”. This is the first micro-season of the mini-season Winter Solstice. All the micro-seasons within Winter Solstice are:
The Common Self-Heal Sprouts (Dec 22 - Dec 26)
The Elk Sheds its Horns (Dec 27 - Dec 31)
Beneath the Snow the Wheat Sprouts (Jan 01 - Jan 05)
In our latest post, we celebrate this season by learning about the common self-heal and Japan’s winter weather. We then read seasonal haiku by Reichhold, Basho, Issa, Buson, and Greves.
You can read the full post here.