Every week, you might have noticed, I include where each haiku postcard was mailed to. Not the name or street address, mind you, just the town and country where the recipient lives.
With about 1,500 haiku postcards mailed out, I’ve hit just about every continent except Antarctica. Not for lack of trying neither.
I consider the mailing part to be the critical aspect of this project. At first, I figured if I’m mailing the haiku to someone, I’ll try harder to write better haiku. Otherwise, the words just disappear down the timelines and newsfeeds, gone forever, so where’s the incentive to even try?
But a postcard that might end up on someone’s refrigerator or among the keepsakes their heirs will dig through, and my name’s on it? Well, I want that to be a good haiku. I want to have at least tried.
Here’s the deal.
I need addresses. At this rate, I will run out of addresses before Xmas day. I will have no one to mail my haiku to. I’ll have to start digging around for merchants I admire or public figures. Politicians. Ugh.
So PLEASE, if you have not already (and I know a lot of you have not), please let me send you a postcard. Please be a part of this crazy project, get something you can hold in your hand, and see online too!
I don’t share recipients’ addresses with anyone. I won’t contact you about anything, and that’s a big promise from an author with forthcoming books to promote. I won’t even contact you about those!!!
Scoot on down to the section right below the postcard photos for a link that will open a new message in your default email app, with the subject line already filled out.
Anyway, here are last week’s seven haiku, and where the very lucky and wonderful and openminded recipients live.
haiku 20231204 » Woodinville, WA USA
crisp autumn morning
a neighbor I don't know
comments on the sunshine
haiku 20231205 » Scottsdale, AZ USA
this patio full
of drunken sparrows --
where do they come from?
haiku 20231206 » Merced, CA USA
fog at altitude
the road disappears
behind the rain
haiku 20231207 » Woodinville, WA USA
rain and more rain
the cat on the porch chair
perfectly smug
haiku 20231208 » Austin, TX USA
good morning, young hawk!
we hear your blue-sky screech
but cannot see you
haiku 20231209 » Belmont, CA USA
almost winter
unpulled weeds take refuge
under unraked leaves
haiku 20231210 » Cheshire, CT USA
sunday coffee
autumn's last leaves
scrape against the glass
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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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.