We are all used to how the seasons mark the change in the natural world. Autumn tells us the leaves on the trees are beginning to fall and animals are getting ready for the cold of Winter when food will be hard to get. Then Spring brings new life and the fields will be full again by Summer.

In ancient Japan, the year was divided into 72 kō or ‘micro-seasons’ which marked the changes people saw happening around them. I love the detail found in these tiny seasons (which only last a few days). They remind me of the things poets like to notice.

Let’s take a look at some of these micro-seasons.

The period between February 4-8 was called ‘East wind melts the ice’. This was followed by ‘Bush Warblers start singing in the mountains’ (February 9-13) and then ‘Fish emerge from the ice’ during February 14-18. These groups of micro-seasons were called sekki and there were 24 of them. The one I just described is called Risshun, which means ‘beginning of Spring’.

I like Shunbun, which is the Spring equinox from March 21 to April 4. Look what happens if I write the names of the micro-seasons in Shunbun as poetry.

Sparrows start to nest

First cherry blossoms

Distant thunder

It’s a simple way to describe change and movement in the world.

Using this same attention to the smallest detail, I wonder if we can create a small calendar for a school day.

I don’t have a school day. But if I look at the things I do then I would say some of my ‘sekki’ would include ‘Breakfast’, ‘Journey to work’, ‘Second Breakfast’, ‘Waiting to write’.

My Breakfast would look something like this:

Light washes face

Toes tickle carpet

Bowl claps with spoon

It’s a tiny look at what happens when I wake.

So how about your school day?

I’d suggest that we should think really hard about this and divide it into sections. I might be tempted to write ‘Assembly’ or ‘Registration’ but EVERY school has those. I’m really looking for the details. Perhaps there is something your Head Teacher does to start assembly. It might be ‘Mrs Fingle claps then sings’ or ‘Chatter slow to hush’.

I like that last one.

What happens next? Are there are things which happened today? The first hand in the air. Chairs move like thunder. The harder you look at things happening around you the better your poem will be. You can include feelings (‘stomach crosses its fingers’ perhaps) or sounds or smells—make it varied and by the end of your poem you will have had a very interesting, poetic day.

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