The past week or so has been dedicated to preparing for a new hardwood floor, mostly meaning moving a lot of furniture to the garage, not to mention putting things away to avoid the inevitable dust.
The transition from summer to fall has also been quite pronounced. Shorter days, cooler weather, leaves dropping from the trees. For some reason, I am eager for autumn this year. I can’t say why. Although it signifies decline and decay, culminating in death, it also means shaking off the excesses of spring and summer.
Maybe this reflects where I am in my own life. At age 61, I can make no claim to youth. But my trees remain lush and green, even as autumn approaches quickly. I have lost much of the “putting up with” I associate with youth. How many hours have I lost trying to please others, or be needlessly polite with people who didn’t give a damn about me or my pursuits?
I do not want those hours back — they were necessary for more subtle, subterranean purposes — but I appreciate having learned to not waste a minute more.
Anyway, here are last week’s haiku and where I mailed them to.
haiku 2023911 » Singapore
we talk about
the show we're bingeing
trees in evening light
haiku 2023912 » San Francisco, CA USA
any excuse
to step outside
garbage night
haiku 2023913 » Oakland, CA USA
early morning
I let out the cats
and take in the stars
haiku 2023914 » Marina del Rey, CA USA
september twilight
the neighbor boy searches
for a lost nerf dart
haiku 2023915 » Camarines Sur, Philippines
morning kitchen
yesterday's flowers
in a mason jar
haiku 2023916 » Nashville, TN USA
tai chi practice
the cat winds her way
around my legs
haiku 2023917 » Sonoma, CA USA
wild blackberries
we come back to town
with purple fingers
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.