An Empty Hat
All seven daily haiku from Haiku Andy 06.17.24 - 06.23.24
A recent development has caused me to reevaluate this project. To recap, I write an original haiku every day, inscribe it on a card, post a photo of the card on social media (here and here), then mail the card to someone selected at random.
The mailing thing has always been, for me, the heart of the project. It originated back in 2012 as a way to improve as a haiku poet. It’s easy to post some scrawled off haiku and forget about it — where’s the incentive to improve? — BUT to not only write the haiku, but to mail it to an actual human being? Well, THEN it had better be good enough for someone to put on their fridge or save in a scrap book or wherever.
(The photos came a little later, but added to the incentive to make it good.)
Well, I am fresh out of addresses. As you’ll note below, the last two haiku postcards have no destination in parentheses. They’re sitting here, homeless, on my desk.
For the time being, I will continue writing and posting. Maybe I no longer need a human recipient to incentivize me to improve. Maybe the haiku and photos are enough?
We’ll see. In my first round (2012 - 2014), I pulled the plug at 1,001 consecutive days (you can see the cards here). Now, in this round, I’m just shy of 700. So far.
Is haiku for haiku sake enough to keep me going for another 300? Stay tuned!
Meanwhile, here are last week’s card, and where five of them were mailed to.
haiku 20240617 (Staten Island, NY USA)
grass blades growing
between patio stones --
who am I to pluck them?
haiku 20240618 (Berkeley, CA USA)
edge of summer
the ground covered
with wilted blossoms
haiku 20240619 (Palo Alto, CA USA)
last day of spring
a box full of seeds
I didn't sow
haiku 20240620 (San Francisco, CA USA)
last night the moon
looked brighter than usual
summer solstice
haiku 20240621 (Gloucester, ON Canada)
sun through trees
the summers of my life
merge into one
haiku 20240622
summer morning
opening all the windows
before sunrise
haiku 20240623
rainbows
in the sprinkler
I am a child again
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.
1991 It started for me :-)
Thanks Andy! Please yes?
Tokyo bookstore, third floor.
Basho Haiku’d me.