One of the coolest aspects of this haiku project, this business of mailing randomly selected people haiku postcards, is that sometimes someone mails you stuff back.
This week I was delighted by a packet stuffed with haiku (and haiku adjacent) art by the amazing Pippa Phillips. It included some tiny booklets of poetry, each of which develops along a theme, and some haiga pieces that are also stickers. (I’m not sticking them onto anything — I want to keep them in perfect condition!)
If you haven’t already, I suggest checking out Pippa’s Instagram. You can see samples of what she sent me and even get some for yourself. You won’t be sorry. Tell her Haiku Andy sent you!
Meanwhile, here are the past week’s seven haiku, and where they were sent.
haiku 20230619 » Huntsville, AL USA
antique sideboard
the perfection of
its craquelure
haiku 20230620 » Seattle WA USA
pulling weeds
until my hands ache
they win again
haiku 20230621 » Benicia, CA USA
the barber pregnant
with a boy after two girls —
is this length okay?
haiku 20230622 » Los Angeles, CA USA
lizard vamping
on the stone wall
summer solstice
haiku 20230623 » San Francisco, CA USA
the dog and his ball
waiting by the door
summer morning
haiku 20230624 » Half Moon Bay, CA USA
same old café
same old order —
new art on the walls
haiku 20230625 » Rautalampi, Finland
half moon at dusk
a stray tabby cat
follows us home
That’s all seven! See you next week! And remember…
I 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.
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.