Hi Everyone!
About a month ago, I posted this article about linked haiku. It's a form that I stumbled across when I was a student. it's explained in the article, but what I love most about it is that it's a fairly easy form, there's an element of surprise in it, and often that surprise results in something very delightful.
I asked for poets to share, and share they did! Hooray!
Considering that we are in a time when most surprises don't seem to be good ones, I hope that these poems can bring a smile to your face. I know they did for me.
Please remember that all of these poems were generously shared by the poets in the spirit of discovery and delight. All rights and credit is theirs, and I thank them so much !!!
I love these works, and if you love them too, please post a comment thanking the poets themselves!
I'm going to be posting an accompanying video to this very soon. But, I thought it would be nice to have an accompanying article/commentary on why I love all of these pieces.
Thank you so much for reading, and especially thank you to the poets for sharing these exquisite flashes of spring.
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Writing some late night haikus--put a smile on my face even tho the last one came out kinda dark 🤣
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Sunshine brightening
Through my office window pane
On a beach desktop.
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Birthdays and cool breezes
Barbeque smoke winding up
My nose to savor.
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Noise machine dripping
My fake rain whispering sleep
During endless drought.
**
Sunshine brightening
Barbeque smoke winding up
During endless drought.
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I love Sara's work because it really illustrates the surprise that this sort of haiku can spring. here are three lovely haiku. each of them has a very definite mood. The first two are hopeful, and yet there's a sense of yearning with both of them. For the beach while at the office, or for birthdays and cool breezes and savory barbecues. the last one is a little darker, but it's very evocative, and as a person living in Southern California, I certainly am familiar with endless drought.
But notice what happens when we link them? Suddenly we juxtapose the brightness and the yearning and the drought and we get a piece I feel is far less predictable, bright, yet dark, and full of that feeling that I have often these days-- enjoying a beautiful moment, yet knowing that this world is on a very frightening path.
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From my mouth are words!
You offer conversation as if never heard.
Do you listen to me?
–
I need to start over!
Address that I already discussed that topic?
Friction creates madness in me.
–
Am I robot, seen only?
You make light that you missed the conversation.
Was I standing alone, talking?
–
Solution, journal conversations with you?
Hey me again, can you hear me?
I hate this ugly cycle.
**
From my mouth are words!
Address that I already discussed that topic?
Was I standing alone, talking?
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Lesley's haiku are so compelling. Each haiku on its own is open and honest and strong. The first haiku reads almost like a lament, the second a protest, and the third and fourth? This is what I find so beautiful about this set.
We are never quite sure to whom the poet is speaking. To God, to oneself? To somebody else? That's why the linked haiku at the end, offers a very interesting possibility. There's something both surreal and heart-wrenching about this group of haiku. I find Lesley’s poems so relatable and entrancing.
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Magic world of Spring
Whispering trees muted hues
Will it rain tonight
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Behold a carpet
Shower of petals underfoot
For only a day
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Love is eternal
With the season combineth
Take heart dear people
**
Magic world of Spring
Shower of petals underfoot
Take heart dear people
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Mary's first three haiku start with magic, continue with expressing the beauty of a moment, and end with the promise of eternal love. All of which is wonderful enough.
But then!
When the haiku link, something really special happens. The final haiku gathers these burgeoning feelings of anticipation and experience and promise all into one radiant exhortation.
This sort of linked haiku is much less a surprise and far more in affirmation, almost like the final couplet of a Shakespearean sonnet, succinctly, almost unbelievably summing up all that's come before and leaving the reader with a sense of appreciation for all the worlds that they've been privy to.
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birds singing madly
with thunder rumbling low
when storm clouds disperse
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Sara's work just sings with imagery. Each of her first three poems are like a little snippet of a day. They all have to do with spring rain, but from different points of view... From the birds to the sky and to the sun.
I think linking these haiku gave me the biggest surprise out of the set. Whereas Sara's first three haiku were each beautiful, there was a lightness to them. It almost felt as if the words were sprinkled and dappled onto the page. However, the final poem is a whole different kind of revelation. Suddenly it's not merely magical, but dangerous, and little frightening and mad, and one feels the power of the spring... the exhilaration behind it and the giddy terror one gets when facing nature. Sublime.
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I hear wind blowing
The rustle of leaves growing
Greener with the rain.
–
A bumblebee dance
On the daffodils yellow
In morning sunshine
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A brisk morning walk
While the sparrows chirp and dive
Feel the dew touched grass
**
I hear wind blowing
On the daffodils yellow
Feel the dew touched grass
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Tammy’s haiku are thoroughly immersed in experience. The wind is blowing, the bumblebees are dancing, do as touching the feet of the poet. We are thoroughly immersed in the season--and we navigate it with the familiarity, appreciation, and ease. However, the spring also holds surprises. And I think the last linked haiku to serve wonderful job of illustrating this.
When one is immersed in a season, or any experience, the senses don't always synchronize. What one hears or sees or feels may not line up with each other. By doing this, I think that Tammy’s haiku convey a wonderful feeling of letting go of knowing, and letting your body discover the fullness of spring.
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When I think of Spring
True love will bound in the air
And robins will sing
–
When I think of Spring
Florets and buds sprout upward
And lilacs will bloom
–
Love like blossoms form
Together are united
When I think of Spring
**
When I think of Spring
Florets and buds sprout upward
When I think of Spring
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Each time I read work by other poets, I learned something. In this group, I think Sally's haiku taught me the most. I just want to blurt about craft here. Sally's work is incredibly rhythmic for a haiku. I know that sounds strange, especially if each haiku has the same number of syllables per line. But when I read her poems out loud, the beat comes through so clearly.
The revelation comes at the end. I've written many haiku. And, I like to think of myself as a writer who likes to push boundaries. But never in a million years would I have thought to use a refrain in such a short space. The repetition of the first and third lines, to me, is a revelation. I know it might not have been intentional—but that's the way discovery often is!
When you look at those final three lines, you realize that even in a haiku, there are so many things to be learned. I'm very grateful for this set of poems.
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I woke up to find Spring had visited my garden
Bulbs bursting into bloom, suddenly pink,red ,lavender like
a walk through heaven .
Hummingbirds dance with eager anticipation of nectar around and around in rings
Ants and butterflies are merry, it’s a mysterious thing , It’s Spring!
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With its squawking voice
It wakes all to hear him call
A mate at midnight
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Usha and Dinda gave shorter poems, so they didn't progress in a way that could be linked. still, I really enjoyed reading these. Besides, with poetry one should always be free. And it's spring! So thank you so much for these!
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Spring snowstorm right now
Snow piled up high
The silent bold white
–
To remind that seasons mix,
Glistening and pillowy
Settles my mind awhile
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Mingle, in a dance
Cold, yet beautiful
Like frozen blossoms
**
Spring snowstorm right now
Glistening and pillowy
Like frozen blossoms
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Spring can mean so many different things to people, and Shana's haiku so wonderfully show this. Here there is still snow piled high, silent And one needs poetry too remind oneself that the seasons are mixing. Often, we think of spring as arriving all at once, in the same sort of way, to everyone.
But often, spring arrives on the calendar before it arrives to the neighborhood. It can be a time of patience and of solitude.
And yet, there's the 4th haiku. And through its linked lines, I sense this exuberant playfulness. The blossoms might be frozen, but they're blossoms. The snow storm and spring is glistening and pillowy. It's time to jump on them and play.
And all of this is happening, as the haiku says, right now. There's no need to wait. Spring is here!
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My husband, adult son, and I drove to San Antonio to visit my parents for Easter. I wrote a haiku about the journey, and my mother and son wrote haikus to try to link with mine. So here is our 3 generation haiku set, where the unexpected linked haiku is about a cat-like alien monster named Grace playing on the highway, fishing for us.
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Mine:
Grace on the highway
Texas wildflowers, Easter
Profusion of Joy
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Mother’s (about her beloved cat Pixie):
Pixie wants supper
Green eyes watch me hungrily
Yummy cat food time!
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My son's (inspired by Pixie too):
If I were a cat
I’d bask in the morning sun
And play with some string
**
Linked:
Grace on the highway
Green eyes watch me hungrily
And play with some string
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I think this is my favorite of the entire event. I love them all, but something about using poetry to link a family, especially three generations together? Susan, her mother, and her son, all doing the three generation haiku set--and the last haiku is so playful.
I hope that in the days and even years to come, the three of you can look at your poems and laugh and remember a very special drive to San Antonio Thank you so much for sharing a little bit of your joyful family with the rest of us.
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And I'd like to thank everybody who submitted poems, and those who are reading the poems now. I wish you all a wonderful rest of the spring. Please remember that all of these poems were shared out of generosity by the individual poets, so please shout out and thank them. I know I'm incredibly grateful and incredibly honored that we were able to do this together!
Let me know if this is something we might want to do in the summer and fall, as well. I might change things a little bit, but I do love how poetry and the seasons work together.
Wishing you all the best!
🌸 Ryka
ps--I'll have a video up soon--just learning how to do it!!!
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