A Shahai (Photo Haiku)
The Wiltshire Downs from Liddington Castle - 1892 (prepared for publication by Miss Bertha Newcombe) from the book by H S Salt - Richard Jefferies A Study (1894)
sultry winds
sweeping the hill
a kestrel’s cry
First Published in the July edition of Scarlet Dragonfly Journal (Kathleen Trocmet)
For me the addition of the haiku really pulls me into the picture making it come alive – the haiku itself positioned where the kestrel would be hovering above the stooks.
Here is the extract from which this haiku was derived …
[…]Presently a small swift shadow passes across—it is that of a hawk flying low over the hill. He skirts it for some distance, and then shoots out into the air, comes back half-way, and hangs over the fallow below, where there is a small rick. His wings vibrate, striking the air downwards, and only slightly backwards, the tail depressed counteracting the inclination to glide forwards for awhile. In a few moments he slips, as it were, from his balance, but brings, himself up again in a few yards, turning a curve so as to still hover above the rick.[…]
An extract from ‘Wildlife in a Southern County’ (Originally published in 1879) – his essays of happier times in the hills and vales of the Wessex Downs …
That works really well, it looks perfectly balanced. I also like how you’ve shared the longer extract which informed the haikul.
Thank you for your comment. Warmly appreciated.