Kachō-ga, by Alan Peat

Sparrows Alighting on Wisteria, by Nagasawa Rosetsu (Japan) ca. 1795-99

Kachō-ga*

The background is minimal, exactly as we wished when we planted the bed - only ivy, covering an old stone wall. The roses pop against its dark green curtain, and now, in late summer, sparrows flit among their sad, collapsing hearts.

just flown…
fluttering stem in a shower
of petals

Alan Peat

*The literal meaning of the Japanese term "Kachō-ga" is "birds and flowers’." It is also an important genre of Japanese art.

Alan Peat is an English writer. In 2021 he placed third in the International Golden Triangle Haiku contest & second in the New Zealand International Haiku contest. In 2022 he was runner up in the British Haiku Society Haibun Award; honourable mention in the Haiku Poets of North California International Haibun contest & second in the Sandford Goldstein international tanka contest. In 2022 he was a guest author at Cornell University’s Mann Library. The following year he won the inaugural HSA Touchstone Award for haibun. He has also written books about ceramics, textiles, and the art of John Tunnard.