Text has always been ethereal. The words matter, not so much the physical media which carries them. Strings of letters transcribed, copied, pasted from one form of document to another, be it clay tablet or electronic screen.
During two recent trips to Brazil, I kept up writing my haiku on postcards and selecting recipients, but I held off mailing the envelopes until I was back in the States.
Under normal circumstances, I usually post each card as soon as I have photographed it, because I can't walk my dog without passing four or five mailboxes.
After each trip to Brazil, however, I came home with a weighty stack of envelopes, and I was reminded of the physical aspect of this Daily Haiku Actual Postcard project.
All the haiku cards I have created and mailed into the world are paper and ink. Molecules. They have mass and dimension. They take up physical space, and collectively add up to significant square footage.
(Specifically: 6 cards = 1 square foot, I've mailed out about 1,443 cards, so about 240 square feet. A room just under 50’ x 50’.)
Moreover, because we live on a finite planet, all those haiku cards are theoretically still out there, taking up space and banging around with all the other physical objects.
Where art thou, all my haiku? Did you fall upon rocky ground and perish? Or did you find purchase in fertile earth, growing into a rich harvest?
Are you decorating a refrigerator or lying beneath a landfill?
Anyway, weird to think about. Here are seven more I put out there.
haiku 20231009 » Los Angeles, CA USA
st. benedict's church --
the tall blue doors locked,
hours not listed
haiku 20231010 » Fairfax, CA USA
damn this hotel pillow!
I miss my wife, the sounds
of my house
haiku 20231011 » Oceanside, CA USA
hotel breakfast
amid business travelers
I feel out of place
haiku 20231012 » Benicia, CA USA
hello, mosquito
our ancestors also
likely met
haiku 20231013 » Vallejo, CA USA
zip zip zzzip
suitcase on the hotel bed
going home
haiku 20231014 » Sparks, NV USA
chicago rain
the gray puddled floor
of the airport tram
haiku 20231015 » Sebastopol, CA USA
airport starbucks
we soon discover
each other's names
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.
Follow me on Instagram
If that’s your thing… https://www.instagram.com/haikuandy/
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.