Summer's Soft Close

Haiku Café Autumn Series — August 2026

cool wind through the reeds
   summer finds its softest close
      kissed bronze by the sun

— 08 August 2026
© Lana E. Taylor
ᚂᚐᚅᚐ ᚈᚐᚔᚂᚑᚏ

And just like that, the light shifts and the air smells of autumn. It’s in the temperature of rain that falls a little too often. It’s in the rustle of the leaves that sounds different, now that the foliage loses its suppleness as days grow shorter.

In many countries, August is still summer. But for us in Ireland, it’s autumn — not only by the old pagan calendars, but by the feel of it too.

Similarly, in Japan, a land as far away from the evergreen island as can be, August 7th marks the beginning of early autumn. The lunisolar calendar, koyomi (暦), that observes 24 seasonal periods called sekki and 72 micro-seasons named kô, poetically calls this season 涼風至 — Suzukaze itaru, “Cool wind rises again.”

Ireland and Japan rarely share a calendar. But when they do, it feels like a strange synchronicity — to stand under a different sky and still know that you’re on the same page.

The wind is the first bringer of autumn. And the august wind sings in the same key.

Sending love and light,

Lana
of Salt & Silence