Haiku Tag

The dry steam of death

The whirling clouds left behind

Seen by those who cared

Seen by those who cared

at great cost, sacrifice

another like, come

another like, come

Spring ~ I bid you come ~~ quickly.

Winter - ice sculpture.

Winter ice sculpture –
the dragon of the arctic
shining fiendish fire.

Shining fiendish fire
Over a sepulchre’s vault
Of all yesterdays.

Of all yesterdays.
My college days were the best.
learning how to learn.

Good!!!

Learning how to learn
To live to learn how to live–
This is all there is.

This is all there is.
Religion: one man’s answer.
He fools himself thus.

Got back there in the end.

We, I included, are getting far afield from traditional Japanese haiku, which is a word picture without a moral.

He fools himself thus

The springs shadows midsummer

Nights dreamed, gently, hush

Nights dreamed, gently hush.
The gloom has stars stirring
The day that will come.

Haiku is about nature; senryu is about human emotions. We are doing senryu here. One of the best nature poems I’ve read, which would have made a good haiku, was my mentor’s definition of a squirrel–“An undulating urgency in fur”. At the expense of diluting that good line, I’d add
An undulating
Urgency in fur, fast leaps
Onto support branch.
But, I’m off the tag lines here.

The day that will come

And I will be you again

Then not remeber

Then, in that case, I prefer senryu… I’m not inclined to poeticise over nature as much as I am over emotion.

Just noting that not all 5/7/5s are haikus. The Japanese are more sticklers for exact definitions than we Westerners are. But then we are laboring under the burden of Western traditions in poetry and thought.

Then not remember
when all crammed thoughts are mute
yet we still wish on

Yet we still wish on;
Ephemeral hints of hope
Are better than none.

Are better than none.
Advice is patronising
To a knowing mind…

To a knowing mind
The mystery of being
Is wonder and awe.