The seven haiku below are the first ones I wrote as an officially “retired” person. Of course, I am busier than ever. Lots of deferred maintenance needs attention. I need to heal from a quarter century of tech work.
This is my narrow road: navigating the path forward, inventing the next few decades (with luck!) of my life, and maybe even finding out who I am, after so many years of being distracted from really finding out…
Anyway, here are last week’s haiku and where I sent them.
haiku 20230424 » Carrollton, GA USA
oh, happy dog
tail sweeping the grass --
what's your secret?
haiku 20230425 » Vacaville, CA USA
mountain twilight
the neighbor's cat invites me
to scratch her belly
haiku 20230426 » Stratford, CT USA
how long we've waited!
the neighbors' aspens
cascading green
haiku 20230427 » Oakland, CA USA
retirement
now the real work begins
sweeping the back steps
haiku 20230428 » Huntsville, AL USA
cool of the evening
I walk thru the garden
the garden walks thru me
haiku 20230429 » Media, PA USA
perfect pine cone
my fingers smart but
I can't set it down
haiku 20230430 » Belvidere, NJ USA
fragrant evening
I wait out the sunset
to follow the stars
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 don’t want a card? 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.
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.