Heeding Haiku With HA: To Egyptian Mythology

First of all, I would like to thank Georgia of Bastet and Sekhmet for managing the last week’s prompt in such a wonderful way and as a token of thanks, I am having Egyptian Mythology as the theme of our prompt this week.

Image source

I was first introduced to the complexities of Egyptian gods and goddesses by reading the young adult series, The Kane Chronicles, by Rick Riordan, which revolves around the story of a brother and a sister in modern times, who have inherited the powers and duties of Egyptian Priests in their blood. They embrace the powers of Horus and Isis respectively to stop Seth from taking control over the world in the first book, revive the ancient Sun God Ra and journey him across different phases of night through the Duat(underworld or the way which leads to the stars) in the second book and defeat Chaos in the third book. With its modern setting, it was an enthralling read for sure.

Some of the Egyptian elements and their nature counterparts/symbols that you can use in writing a haiku or tanka are:

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1. Bastet, the goddess with the head of cat, is known as a Protective goddess. She is a warrior as well and is also known as the one who slayed Apep or chaos. Or for instance, you can just write something about your cat or some protection or shield in this case. By the way, Bastet is also the friend and caretaker of the protagonist siblings of Riordan’s series.

Anubis

2. Anubis is one of my favorite Gods. He is the one with the head of a jackal and thus associated with jackals. Anubis watches over the dead and the priests, in Ancient Egypt, wore a mask of Anubis during mummification ceremonies. Come on dark writers, he is a worthy contender for your writing.

Eye of Horus

3. Horus with his divine eye, Osiris‘ underworld and Isis. Many of you must know of the popular symbol of the eye of Horus. According to one popular myth, he was the son of Osiris and Isis. Osiris was the Godly Pharaoh but then, his brother Seth cheated him into entering a gilded box which was instantly locked and banished him to underworld. Thus, Osiris is the God of the Dead and underworld. He appears as a mummified figure. Her sister/wife(to believe different sources and myths)Isis appears as a woman with a headdress in the shape of throne. Horus is their son and he has the head of a hawk. He took revenge from Seth for betrayal against his father Osiris and fought, eventually winning the throne but also losing one eye in the battle. Later, it was restored and that eye came out to become the symbol of protection.

Osiris and Isis

So, you have to write a haiku or tanka based on an Egyptian element or mythology or anything that you find suitable to go with the prompt.

General guidelines:

English Haiku- A three line poem, structured in syllable count of 5, 7 and 5. A seasonal word or Kigo and a cutting phrase are significant, where you draw a break between the images. But you are free to write as you wish. And “please” do break the rule of syllable count at least. 😉

English Tanka- A five line poem, structured in syllable count of 5, 7, 5, 7 and 7. The first two lines form the first part and the last two lines form the second part encompassing the concluding image and the middle one i.e. the third line is required to be a pivot line, meaning to say it refers both to the above two lines and the below ones and makes sense grammatically. Let us try it out:

A rough tanka,

prowling sneakily

she stares deep into my eyes

tail curling behind

slayed by the glare of the sun

I lose the sight of my thoughts

Not a good one, but we will work with it. The last two lines along with the third line don’t make any sense, but if we interchange first and third line of the tanka,

tail curling behind

she stares deep into my eyes

prowling sneakily

slayed by the glare of the sun

I lose the sight of my thoughts

Much better.

– Anmol (alias HA)

After posting your haiku or tanka on your site, you may submit the link to your post(s) in the linking widget below. Feel free to ask if you have any query. Happy Writing!

* And how would you feel about doing more prompts on Egyptian mythology? Your feedback is much appreciated.

** You can also add the following tags to your posts: HeedingHaikuWithHA and MindLoveMisery’s Menagerie.