Even though we moved from the city to the Sierra foothills, my wife and I still keep a small studio apartment in San Francisco. Usually rented out, we like to come down and enjoy it during the brief periods that it’s vacant.
Located on Nob Hill, the building is famously one of many that Dashiell Hammett lived in, and it is claimed that he finished The Maltese Falcon here.
Nob Hill is classic San Francisco in terms of architecture and vibe. Bay windows and ornate trim. The ancient Chinese women practicing chi gung in Huntington Park. Fog horns mingling with the clangs of the cable cars.
Walk up Leavenworth Street on a foggy night, and you can practically see Sam Spade in his fedora and trench coat, collar turned up against the chill.
Nob Hill is timeless in this way. It’s not about hippies or beatniks, gays or yuppies, techies or freaks. Not about exaggerated crime or Google buses or overpriced real estate.
It’s just pure San Francisco, and extraordinarily inspiring in ways like no other neighborhood. Not the Mission, not the Castro, not the Marina, not even North Beach.
And yet it is all those places, all at once. Next time you’re in town, check it out.
Thanks for indulging me. Here are last week’s haiku postcards, and where they went.
haiku 20231106 » Morgantown, WV USA
november rain
the gray brings out
the reds and yellows
haiku 20231107 » Washington, DC USA
restless sleep
my eye mask becomes
a neck piece
haiku 20231108 » Groton, CT USA
wet morning
somehow the cat
comes home dry
haiku 20231109 » Wendell, NC USA
sun beam
the cat rolls over
and paws the air
haiku 20231110 » Austin, TX USA
small birds
pecking at the dirt
they know something I don't
haiku 20231111 » Washougal, WA USA
webs on the clothesline
these spiders don't
waste any time
haiku 20231112 » Fresno, CA
raking leaves
lest the forest
swallow us whole
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.
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And I’m posting reels of each week’s haiku postcards on Instagram. The “live” photos feature lets you see 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, no nothing if you buy through my links. (Amazon Associates gave me the boot because I didn’t move enough merch. Oh well.)
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. It’s my go-to when packing for a trip. 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. 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 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.
"wet morning
somehow the cat
comes home dry"
I enjoyed this very much.