[For Seniors] Haiku for February: A Collection of Famous Verses Depicting the Transition from Winter to Spring

Social worker / Care workermoko
My name is Moko, a mother of three who admired my mother and worked in the care industry as a care worker and as a medical social worker (MSW) in a hospital. I will be drawing on my previous experience to write mainly about caregiving. Thank you in advance.

It’s still quite cold in February, but with plum blossoms beginning to open and birdsong in the air, you can start to sense the coming of spring bit by bit, can’t you? Let’s savor some verses that capture scenes of February.

For older adults, haiku can be a way to experience the changing seasons with all five senses and to retrace old memories.

The biting cold wind, the thawing snowy landscape, the flower buds just beginning to swell—using the famous verses introduced here as a guide, try composing a haiku that can only be written at this time of year.

We hope you’ll enjoy putting into words the small discoveries found in everyday life.

For Seniors: February Haiku — A Collection of Famous Verses Depicting the Transition from Winter to Spring (21–30)

Fujibashi— a pregnant deer, heavy with life, crossing overTakai Igikasu

I’ve heard that deer usually give birth around summer.

By February or March, a mother deer’s belly is swollen enough that you can tell she’s carrying a fawn.

Even in the wild, February is a season when the cold is keenly felt.

Mother deer are surely braving the chill as if to protect the young in their wombs.

Although this sensitivity has been fading in modern Japan, people once sensed the changing seasons by observing plants and animals.

Through writing haiku, it might be interesting to join older adults in searching for traces of the four seasons in familiar, everyday places.

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Nakajima Junko

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On thin ice, the grasses part — the water’s edge.Kyoshi Takahama

It’s a haiku that depicts the scene of thin ice melting to reveal the grasses growing by the water’s edge.

“Thin ice” here doesn’t mean the thick ice seen in winter, but the delicate sheet of ice that forms in early spring.

Perhaps you remember, as a child, breaking that flimsy ice that would melt quickly in the sunlight.

Thin ice used to be a winter seasonal word, but from the Meiji era onward it came to be used as a spring kigo.

The verse gives a fleeting, delicate impression while also conveying a sense of warmth and softness.

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sasashina

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In conclusion

February haiku carry a delicate sensitivity that detects signs of spring even amid the harsh cold.

Together with older adults, let’s look for familiar changes in nature—plum blossoms, thin ice, the song of the bush warbler.

As you savor the shifting seasons through haiku, may you enjoy a gentle time filled with nostalgic stories.