The dry steam of death
The whirling clouds left behind
Seen by those who cared
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.