“When life looks like easy street, there is danger at your door.” — Robert Hunter
When you write haiku every day, you can develop a muscle for it, which is to say, a sense of process, a reliable routine or pattern for composing a haiku.
Therein lies the danger.
Someone recently asked me, struggling with their own practice, does it get easier? My first impulse was Yes! Of course. Anything you do repeatedly should get easier.
But…
If a haiku comes fast and with a burst of surprise for me, it’s usually pretty good and requires minimal revision to bring it to full light. When that happens, I feel extraordinarily lucky. For one brief shining moment, I was able to punch above my weight.
But if one comes fast, with no burst, it’s usually meh and ultimately beyond salvaging, no matter how many times I try to rewrite it.
And sometimes a haiku might sit in my notebook for months before I am able to bring it to light. In those cases, it’s the revision that comes suddenly and with a burst of surprise.
So… Does it get easier?
One’s practice should get easier, meaning it should get easier to spot a haiku in the wild and capture its elements, even if the final version will be vastly different from that initial impression.
Also, it should get easier to sit down and work on your haiku. You know: gather your materials, put pen to paper (or whatever), and come out with a haiku or three.
These are habits and can be developed simply and quickly with practice and perseverance. Habit formation is an animal thing and we are animals.
But if the haiku themselves seem to be getting easier, they’re probably not getting better. This is good, though. It’s the haiku gods telling you that you need to work harder.
Remember the old refrain: You gotta suffer if you want to write haiku!
haiku 20230918 » Sparks, NV USA
my father's birthday
I send my regards to
the new crescent moon
haiku 20230919 » Brooklyn, NY USA
end of summer
pulling weeds
I've pulled before
haiku 20230920 » El Sobrante, CA USA
cats hiding
under the bed
workers in the house
haiku 20230921 » San Francisco, CA USA
all this luxury
from a handful of acorns
new hardwood floor
haiku 20230922 » Napa, CA USA
autumn so soon?
the cat's fur damp
to my aging touch
haiku 20230923 » Northfield, MA USA
cedar ridge evening
the moon and I
find each other
haiku 20230924 » Marina Del Rey, CA USA
autumn morning
the forest floor thick with
all that has fallen
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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Starting a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been creating “reels” of the seven haiku. Check it out!
Buy haiku books
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 merchandise. Oh well.)
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.