Ain't Too Proud to Beg III
All seven daily haiku from Haiku Andy 05.06.24 - 05.12.24
Periodically, I need to re-post about an important aspect of this project.
Namely, YOUR participation, especially for recent subscribers and followers:
You might think this haiku project runs on Zen and saké and lunar cycles, but in reality it runs on addresses. Snail mail addresses. So please, if you haven’t already, send me your address. Or your in-laws’ addresses. Anyone who might enjoy getting a haiku card crafted by me personally. I don’t share my mailing list, I ask for nothing in return (except for your good graces), and I literally cannot do this project without people to mail these things to!
In short, I would love to send you a card just like the ones you see in the photos below.
It’s about much more than receiving a postcard, though.
You are playing an instrumental role in an experimental art project. Thousands of haiku postcards that comprise a singular objet d’art are being dispersed around the globe. (Objet d’art is French, in case you’re wondering how serious this is.) Each postcard is a node in a network whose locations (ie, your refrigerator door or bulletin board or random drawer) together form a single international exhibit.
Anyway, here are the past week’s haiku postcards and the locations of the art spaces where they are currently curated.
haiku 20240506 (Fairfield, IA USA)
poker tell
his thumb
stroking the felt
haiku 20240507 (Martinez, CA USA)
cutting vegetables
the clonk-clonk of
knife meeting board
haiku 20240508 (San Francisco, CA USA)
sierra chill
riding the breeze
gold country evening
haiku 20240509 (Glen Arm, MD USA)
garden morning
scanning for weeds
I miss the flowers
haiku 20240510 (Alameda, CA USA)
meeting the garden
flower by flower
my new granddaughter
haiku 20240511 (Saugerties, NY USA)
northern lights
the top of my head
opens wide
haiku 20240512 (Edgewood, WA USA)
yard sale
nothing we would keep
either
That’s all seven! See you next week! And remember…
I STILL want to send you a card
It’s kinda weird you read my Substack but haven’t requested a card yet. I don’t get it. Please ask! It’s free. I ask nothing in return, aside from your good graces or maybe a cup of coffee if you’re so inclined.
Follow me on Instagram
If that’s your thing… https://www.instagram.com/haikuandy/
I also post reels of each week’s haiku postcards on Instagram. The “live” photos feature reveals my sloppy attempts to angle in on the best shot. Check it out!
Recommended reading
I heartily recommend all the books below. I get no commission, zip zero nada, if you buy through my links. (Amazon Associates gave me the boot because I didn’t move enough merch. Oh well.)
Milkweed: Selected Haiku & Senryu, by Alexis Rotella
I kinda-sorta reviewed this must-have collection in my post Milkweed by Alexis Rotella: A Master Class. Buy it here.
Haiku: An Anthology of Japanese Poems, Stephen Addiss/Fumiko Y. Yamamoto/Akira Y. Yamamoto
With the exception of The Haiku Anthology (see below), this was the first haiku anthology I bought when I first started sending out haiku cards. I stumbled across this small, beautiful book, while making my requisite writer’s pilgrimage to Shakespeare’s Books in Paris (ooh la la). The richness and scope between the covers in this little book is simply amazing, featuring over 102 poets, many more if you include anonymous authors. Buy it here.
The Haiku Anthology (Third Edition), Edited by Cor van den Heuvel
Want to know what modern English-language haiku really looks like? What it is capable of? Here is your answer, and a must for every haiku poet’s bookshelf. When I first started writing haiku, this volume served me very well. Many of the haiku within have remained with me throughout the years, and I have been privileged to now count some of the contributors as colleagues and friends. Buy it here.
Three Simple Lines: A Writer’s Pilgrimage into the Heart and Homeland of Haiku, Natalie Goldberg
Many writers will immediately recognize Goldberg from her forever bestselling Writing Down the Bones. In Three Simple Lines, she intertwines memoir, history, and travelogue in a magnificent way as she journeys through Japan, chasing down the ghosts of Bashō and Buson, among others. She also draws much needed attention to women haiku poets, who were too often overshadowed by their male contemporaries. Buy it here.
Mountain Tasting - Haiku and Journals of Santoka … (tr. John Stevens)
I found Santoka challenging at first. Much of his haiku feels incomplete to me or dashed off. But he grew on me. Soon I felt like a companion on his journey, bouncing from inn to inn, begging for alms by day, pounding sake by night. Buy it here.
The Essential Haiku - Versions of Bashō, Buson, & Issa
Essential is right! Edited by Robert Hass, a great poet in his own right. Hass includes great essays on the history and evolution, as well as other writings by the poets themselves. A true master class in haiku! Buy it here.
Narrow Road to the Interior and Other Writings, Matsuo Bashō (tr. Sam Hamill)
Haiku poets have a tradition of wandering the countryside, and Bashō set the example! Buy it here.
Selected Poems, Masaoka Shiki (tr. Burton Watson)
I wrote a whole post about Shiki. Haiku might not exist today without his influence and renewal of the form. Buy it here.
Issa's Best: A Translator's Selection of Master Haiku, Issa Kobayashi (tr. David G. Lanoue)
Issa is probably the most beloved of the classic poets. His humility and joy in the face of unbearable loss and poverty endear him to haiku lovers everywhere. Lanoue seems to have made translating Issa his life’s mission, and I love his versions. Buy it here.