Sometimes I feel like this haiku postcard project is missing an artist’s statement, that mission-statement-esque thing artists write to explain why they painted this series of pictures, what concepts they were exploring. Something to hang on the gallery wall or to include in an NEA application.
I did write some things ten-plus years ago, at the outset, about how a written card is an artifact and why that's kind of cool, and have written things since, like how all the postcards together form a singular, if dispersed, objet d'art, because no artist statement is complete without at least some gratuitous French.
As is often the case in my life, I don't really understand why I do things, what strange engines drive me forward. If pressed, I could come up with a narrative that sounds halfway reasonable. But again, that would be a narrative, a construct by definition.
This thing is a mystery to me, but I trust it's meaningful, that I have my reasons, even if I don’t know what they are. And when someone writes back, thanking me for the haiku and how it made their day…
Well, all I can say is, mission accomplie…
Et voila, here are the week’s haiku, and their destinations.
haiku 20221010 > Cloverdale, CA USA
after two weeks I get the solar working but it's me who clicks
haiku 20221011 > Novato, CA USA
sierra twilight the moon and I become more ourselves
haiku 20221012 > Novato, CA USA
breakfast nook my neighbor's aspens brighten with the sun
haiku 20221013 > Novato, CA USA
new house new noises to wonder about
haiku 20221014 > Berkeley, CA USA
morning darkness all these planets have names not that it matters
haiku 20221015 > San Francisco, CA USA
crowded breakfast joint I luck into a seat at the counter
haiku 20221016 > San Francisco, CA USA
something in the rug pricks my bare foot an old cat claw
I hope you enjoyed the haiku and the photos. Remember, I’d be happy to send you one of these cards. Just DM me and I’ll put your name in the hat.
But right now, I’ve got to get cracking, cuz baby needs a new pair of shoes…