Monday, February 14, 2022

A Gathering of Haiku

We are a bit omnivorous here, occasionally straying into philosophy and even literature. I have put up some haiku before, but not for quite a while. I write several every week, so here are a selection of the ones that are the least bad:

Here comes the New Year

How very odd the Old Year:

Plague, politics and loss.

* * *

Sudden heat of Spring

In such a hurry to melt

All trace of winter.

* * *

Green glint: hummingbird

Hovering so precisely

Misses not a bloom!

 * * *

Quiet rain at night

Falling out of its season

Traces of memory.

* * *

Ancient wisdom or

"Latest research." I think I

Know where the truth lies.

* * *

Heavy rains today

Plants are drinking eagerly

World takes a shower.

* * *

Sad to realize

How poor in relationships

I have always been.

* * *

Ghosts of past mistakes

Flow through my dreams, keeping me

Awake, feeding doubt.

* * *

But I don't normally type my haiku into a computer. Instead, I write them with a fountain pen, like this:

English is probably a less suitable language for haiku than Japanese as it needs more syllables to say something. But the discipline of five syllables, seven syllables, five syllables I find to greatly aid in focussing these tiny crystals of thought. The other requirement in the traditional haiku is a word that reveals the season. Sometimes I observe that, sometimes not.

5 comments:

Wenatchee the Hatchet said...

I've leaned more into haiku using acid observational humor such as

the men who most want
to reproduce seem to be
the ones who shouldn't

But those kind of men are usually that way through every season!

Bryan Townsend said...

If you read the traditional haiku, you notice that a lot of them are chains of witty and humorous poems.

Wenatchee the Hatchet said...

only a little, but I've read enough of them (and about them) to know the wit and humor show up, and I think for English language haiku emphasizing that element is easier than the seasonal allusions. Musical allusions come more easily

Train is what we got
if The Counting Crows did a
Spin Doctors Cover

For the record I hate all three bands very much.

Bryan Townsend said...

I don't think I would recognize any of that music if I heard it!

Wenatchee the Hatchet said...

you're better off for it. ;)