My wife and I just spent two weeks in San Francisco, enjoying a small studio apartment we’ve owned for a long time. It’s usually rented out, so this was a rare opportunity.
So yeah, kind of theme this week.
haiku 20230605 » West Orange, NJ USA
fort mason
the grass shivers in
the golden gate wind
haiku 20230606 » San Francisco, CA USA
four AM
trash collectors let us know
how hard they're working
haiku 20230607 » San Jose, CA USA
empty laundromat
all the machines quiet
except one dryer
haiku 20230608 » Prescott, AZ USA
please let this feeling
last a little longer
san francisco twilight
haiku 20230609 » San Francisco, CA USA
overcast morning
workers powerwash the steps
to huntington park
haiku 20230610 » Wichita, KA USA
floor planks creaking
under soft bebop jazz
mission bookstore
haiku 20230611 » Sezze, Italy
witching hour
the neighbor's kitten
mewling
That’s all seven! See you next week! And remember…
I 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.
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.
I love these haiku - especially the one about trash collectors letting you know they're working.
I'd love a postcard! How do I get one? I'd also love to share some of your haiku on a future post of Three Things Weekly, if you're open to that?