Last week, we traveled to Dallas for a combination reunion and Dead concert. As a young man in the 70s and 80s, my friends and I could often be found dancing at Grateful Dead concerts, and have recently (2019 and last week) used Dead & Company shows as a reason to come together and check in with each other, and sometimes our kids come with us.
I’ve known most of these guys since high school, some since grade school, and one since pre-K nursery school. When we see each other, the intervening years seem to disappear. We pick up where we left off. We remember ancient good times as if they occurred yesterday. We toast those no longer with us, which will forever seem too many.
I feel nothing less than blessed to enjoy these bonds into my 60s. Dead & Company say this summer is their final tour, so I’m not sure when we’ll all meet again.
One thing is for sure: they’re all getting haiku mailed to them!
haiku 20230522 » Bridgewater, VA USA
blooming for us
rose bushes planted by
the previous owners
haiku 20230523 » San Francisco, CA USA
this aching elbow!
old age sneaking in
one joint at a time
haiku 20230524 » Kent, Ohio
LAX layover
a fruitless search
for vegan options
haiku 20230525 » Penzance, Cornwall - United Kingdom
america returns
to the scene of the crime
dallas tourism
haiku 20230526 » Berkeley CA USA
vegan at the BBQ
tempted by
the deviled eggs
haiku 20230527 » Coimbra, Portugal
sitting with friends
I've known for fifty years
I'm my nickname again
haiku 20230528 » Columbia, PA USA
welcome home!
the dog so glad to see me
almost breaks my nose
That’s all seven! See you next week! And remember…
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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.
Buy haiku books
Yes, I do get a small commission if you buy these through my Amazon links, but these are books I would happily recommend without mercenary motivations. You can support my work and build up a fine haiku library!
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. As it happens, she has been writing haiku for her entire adult life, and has much to teach us. 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 the sake at 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 work, and I love his versions. Buy it here.