For most of my adult life, I have successfully avoided seasons. You know, Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. I grew up with them on the East Coast of the USA, but after moving to temperate California in my mid-20s, I discovered I could get by just fine without them.
For a spell, I lived in tropical Brazil, where the seasons hardly varied at all. The days never got longer or shorter, though yes, the summers were noticeably warmer and more humid, and the winters slightly wetter and somewhat cooler. Nothing to keep one from the beach, however.
But mostly I have kept close to San Francisco, which is, weather-wise, mostly a coin toss. Any season might bring a bone-chilling day or a warm sunny day. When I lived in the Sunset by Ocean Beach, I often wore a light down coat to walk the dog even in August.
Now, though, living in the Sierra foothills, I have fallen back in love with the seasons.
We moved here on the cusp of Autumn, and the leaves did not disappoint. Not New England brilliant, but quite impressive nonetheless. Winter was a surprise. We were literally buried in several feet of snow. The trees were bare and the sky often gray and dismal. In the last few weeks, Spring has exploded in a way I can’t remember ever having experienced in my East Coast seasonal childhood.
Flowers and blossoms crowd every vista. The trees that were bare just yesterday now burst with green leaves. And I can go out in shorts and sandals, clothes I rarely got to wear in San Francisco.
Anyway, my enthusiasm might show through in last week’s seven haiku, presented below…
haiku 20230501 » Lorimor, IA USA
fragrant blossoms
I try to inhale enough
to last through winter
haiku 20230502 » Santa Rosa, CA USA
taking out the trash
the cumulus moon
ample reward
haiku 20230503 »Kabacan, Cotabato Philippines
gray afternoon
rain on the tip
of the sky's tongue
haiku 20230504 » Plant City, FL USA
pulling up weeds
my father's ghost
corrects my technique
haiku 20230505 » Santa Rosa, CA USA
new meditation
watching the cat
watching the birds
haiku 20230506 » West Hartford, CT USA
dogwood in bloom
in my life, let me too
plant some beauty
haiku 20230507 » Vacaville, CA USA
overwhelmed
I pull off my ear buds
brilliant evening sky
That’s all seven! See you next week! And remember…
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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!
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.
having four seasons plays perfectly into living a haiku life hehe 🌞 ❄️ 🍂 🌱 I always found it tricky but very fun to try to squeeze in the traditional seasonal reference as subtly as possible, the Japanese classics did it so well 😳
I especially loved this batch of Haiku