For some reason, I was feeling poetic today. I started making up poems in my head on my way home from work and made excellent progress on a multi-stanza educational poem about dragonflies I might share with you sometime. But I also came up with a series of haikus, inspired by the changing seasons and some of the insects I’ve seen recently. Without further ado, I give you five illustrated insect haikus!
Woolly bear caterpillar, Pyrrharctia isabella
Little fuzzy worm
Brown and black on the dirt road
Winter is coming
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Brunner’s stick mantid, Burnneria borealis
Green stick-like mantid
Lurking in the tall prairie
As fall quickly comes
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Pipevine caterpillars, Battus philenor
Black caterpillars
Munching on a pipevine leaf
At the summer’s end
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Dragonfly swarm over upper prairie
Shorter summer days
Bring a swirl of dragonflies
Over goldenrod
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Whirligig beetle swirls, Dineutus sp.
Whirligig beetles
Dart on the water’s surface
A riot of life
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I love writing haikus! Anyone want to add to what I’ve started here? I welcome original insect haikus in the comments, or post one on your blog and paste the link to it below. Remember, haikus follow a 5-7-5 syllable structure and traditionally were about nature and the seasons. My whirligig haiku is, for example, not a traditional haiku because it is all about the beetles and doesn’t address how they are tied to a season. I’d love to see what other people can come up with, so I hope some of you will take me up on my haiku challenge!
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The Dragonfly Woman 
I’ll give it a shot, inspired as I am by my recent sighting of a Blue-faced Meadowhawk (http://michaelqpowell.wordpress.com/2014/10/04/blue-faced-meadowhawk-dragonfly/). Here my attempt at a haiku:
Blue-faced Meadowhawk
Where have you been all summer?
At last you are here
Excellent! Love it. It was an odd year for dragonflies, wasn’t it?
wonderful photos – am always surprised when people tell me they cannot understand my fascination with all things insect
Insects are the best! Don’t listen to those naysayers. :)
Oh I couldnt agree more, you made me smile, don’t know what is wrong with everyone, then they will inherit the earth, the insects of course not the naysays )
On transparent wings
Dragonflies flit around us
Autumn brings such joy
Awesome! Thanks for sharing a haiku!
You should check out my little chapbook of poems, “The Minor Fauna.” It includes some insect poems–but no haiku. These are charming–and I love the photos that accompany them.
Where can I get your chapbook? Would love to see it!
https://finishinglinepress.com/product_info.php?products_id=808
:)
Thanks for the link!
I like this challenge!
Last nest of the season.
Chicks gape wide, crying “Momma,
hurry, we are late!”
Have you tried making higgledy-piggledy poems? I like them a lot. I have some animal/science ones here: http://toughlittlebirds.com/2014/07/02/more-animal-higgledy-piggledy/
Oops, I missed that the haiku was supposed to be about insects. Sorry!
Ha ha! No worries! I’ll take a bird haiku. :)
Love this! Thanks for adding it to the little collection here.
And no, I haven’t heard about higgledy-piggledy poems. Will need to look into that!
Greetings!
I always enjoy your postings and your extraordinary enthusiasm for not only dragonflies but so many other insects too. I wonder if I might ask you to identify the (photo) attached dragonfly that I shot in Lundy Canyon near Mono Lake this last weekend. Additionally, I also shot video of it doing something rather strange which I thought might be laying its eggs, although I thought that the pair normally does that, not just the female. Anyway, she was on the rock that you see and sort of dragging the tip of the abdomen and that dark little object on the rock as if she was trying to dislodge something on the rock. But, on the other hand, I thought that eggs were normally deposited on vegetation rather than rocks? Anyway, if you can identify and explain the behavior, I would be very grateful.
Thanks, Barry Boulton
PS I could upload the short video clip to YouTube and provide the URL if you wish.
Love it! Here is my avatar’s:
nepticulidae:
pygmy moth that wears eye caps
and mines leaves or bark
(from “Argonaut to Ziziphus”; https://artandscience.creatavist.com/story/5013#/)
I even have a dragonfly one somewhere; ‘will look!
another:
wingless and blind it
colonized Krubera Cave
deepest known to man
(Deepest Duvalius, from “Verily Scaiku” ..https://artandscience.creatavist.com/verilyscaiku)
Mmm: need to write more with insects in them :)
Awesome! Thanks for sharing!
Found it! But it was not a haiku; it was a triolet. And it was not a dragonfly, but a dang damselfly: http://michelledevilliersart.wordpress.com/2013/04/23/damnselfly/
Close enough in my book. :)