I didn’t post last week, so I’m doing two weeks today.
Oh, and I left my job. I’ve retired, but of course I’m just shifting focus to my own writing, my own projects. I have some novels-in-progress I want to get to, maybe publish some of the haiku that has appeared here, maybe start a new haiku journal.
We’ll see. Meanwhile, here are two weeks’ worth of haiku postcards…
haiku 20230410 >> Mill Valley, CA USA
out walking the dog
we see a bright planet
and move toward it
haiku 20230411 >> West Hartford CT USA
small blue wildflowers
more than I can count
and why would I want to?
haiku 20230412 >> Albuquerque, NM USA
we plant a cedar
in the corner of the yard
a balm for this world
haiku 20230413 >> Media, PA USA
hanging the wash
barefooted
warm patio stones
haiku 20230414 >> Durham, NC USA
office break room
the oversweet stink
of fruit gone bad
haiku 20230415 >> Lincoln, NE USA
museum visit
the akashic records
break wide open
haiku 20230416 >> Chicago, IL USA
sharing a secret
the cat across the alley
winks at me
haiku 20230417 >> Wykoff, NJ USA
early morning sky
I follow the moon
into a new phase
haiku 20230418 >> Lakewood, OH USA
old dylan tune
from a passing car
april twilight
haiku 20230419 >> Lakewood, OH USA
how did I miss this?
red camellia petals
adorning the ground
haiku 20230420 >> San Francisco, CA USA
pigeons in the plaza
a murmuration
at ground level
haiku 20230421 >> Carrollton, GA USA
a good day
to start fresh
the moon also new
haiku 20230422 >> Chicago, IL USA
spring evening
what fragrance is this?
does the name matter?
haiku 20230423 >> Mount Kisco, NY USA
morning sit
the cat tugs
on my earbuds
That’s all! See you next week!
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’ve bought myself and can 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.
recently found your substack and am LOVING it, I have written haiku for years & found it so rare to read modern haiku'ers who really engage me, the moments you write about are so visceral and inspiring, can't wait to keep reading 🙏 🌈 🤓
Congratulations on retirement