Or so I have hoped.
When John Martin of Black Sparrow Press famously offered Charles Bukowski a monthly stipend (in exchange for right of first refusal for publishing his work), enabling the famous poet to quit his job and dedicate himself to writing full time, Bukowski was reportedly so affected, he didn’t get out of bed for six weeks.
I always interpreted this as an indication of how badly regular employment can warp one’s being, and that Bukowski needed those six weeks simply to recalibrate himself, as it were. To recuperate from the warping.
(Of course, he just might have been on a six-week celebratory drunk. I’ll have the review the text.)
Last Friday marked my own six weeks of liberation, the period I was granting myself to recalibrate from the warping of gainful employment. My objective was to start this week off as that dedicated writer I have always promised myself to become once so liberated.
It’s a slow start, to be sure. When I was working full time, even with lengthy commutes, I manage to write and get published a lot of poetry and fiction, including my out-of-print novel, Sleepwalking in Paradise.
I certainly have not been lying around in bed, not that I fault Bukowski, but I haven’t really given myself over to processing this change in my life either. Rather, I have been keeping busy with home projects and visiting friends.
And of course, writing and mailing haiku postcards. Speaking of which, here is last week’s batch…
haiku 20230529 » Easton, PA USA
moon behind the pines
an unseen dog
barks as we pass
haiku 20230530 » San Francisco, CA USA
nob hill evening
sipping tea in a
victorian room
haiku 20230531 » Redwood City, CA USA
after dinner stroll
through russian hill
moon and fog and moon
haiku 20230601 » San Francisco, CA USA
first poker night
since the pandemic —
the old tells still good
haiku 20230602 » Mahwah, NJ USA
causeway traffic
a white heron glides
over the marsh
haiku 20230603 » Prescott Valley, AZ USA
farmers market
sun dresses and sun hats,
dogs panting in the shade
haiku 20230604 » Oakland, CA USA
lynch canyon exit
black cows grazing
in the hillside twilight
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
Yes, I do get a small commission if you buy these through my Amazon links, but these are books I would happily recommend without mercenary motivations. You can support my work and build up a fine haiku library!
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.