Monday, November 24, 2014

Rainbows


Looking up information and folklore about the rainbow,  I found many diverse stories.  The most familiar in the US are probably that of God's promise not to destroy the world in flood and that of the Irish pot of gold at the rainbow's end.  Many see the rainbow as good and some as a bad omen. Amazonians shut their mouths to keep out disease,  ancient arabians thought it was a tapestry woven by the south wind.  Bulgarian legends feel if you walk below the rainbow you will change gender, at least in your way of thinking.   The haiku are not as strong as I would have liked but they should share a little rainbow lore.

Chinese folktale of Hsienpo and Yingt’ai: 

star crossed lovers
await rainbows appearance
to be together


Buddhist: 

highest accomplishment
conscious and desire extinguished
rainbow body


Navajo:

Navajo brave
rides the multicolored serpent
receiving guidance



Nicaragua:
parents hide children
fear they may look or point
rainbow curse



Karen’s of Burma:

painted dragon
devours children
the rainbow


Celtic:

love making
under the rainbow
fertility assured




Josephine Wall


Greek goddess Iris:

Iris on golden wings
leads the dead
to Elysian fields



8 comments:

  1. really nice, all that lore included in your haiku

    much love...

    ReplyDelete
  2. What wonderful haiku .. love the research you did, so many lovely tales.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Whoa this is nice, loved the folklore viewpoint.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! I've always love history and folklore.

      Delete
  4. Wow --- I'd never heard of most of these -- really respecting the work you put into this --- and the lovely haiku too. :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! many were new to me too, but I had to read all about them and lost track of time reading different versions..

      Delete
  5. Wow Dolores you were on a roll with this Time Glass .... what a wonderful series of haiku ... thank you for sharing these with us all.

    ReplyDelete