wobbly jellyfish –
bright blue stars
glazed in aspic

Barbara A. Taylor

A most appealing haiku, written i have learnt, after a long walk on the beach. Each word in the line – bright blue stars along with the word glazed refers to light in a particular way and combine to create a visually stunning image. The bright blue stars allude perhaps to points of sunlight in the translucent body of this blue jellyfish.  These ‘stars’ are given a sense of motion, almost a twinkle, by the well-chosen use of the word wobbly describing the texture of jellyfish and reinforced in the word aspic.  Wobbly also lends an interesting tactile aspect to this haiku. From my reading, this haiku is set in daylight though the mention of stars and the presence of the sea led me also to imagine stars reflected in a night sea, where these stars glazed in aspic so to speak, are subject to the rhythmic motions of the sea, motions not wholly unlike the rhythmic pulse of jellyfish.  A very enjoyable and well-crafted haiku.

First Published:  Asahi Haikuist Network, August 19, 2016

You can visit Barbara Taylor’s website at: http://batsword.webs.com

Selection & comments by Simon Hanson