Haiku

I have always enjoyed haiku for their simplicity. While I know there are a bunch of rules for "true" haiku, to keep them spontaneous, I just stick to the short, three line format and use my ear to determine what sounds right.

For this reason I enjoy the poetry of Taneda Santoka, but there are others like Matsuo Basho who is more famous in the west.  I've recently discovered a form called haibun which combines prose and haiku in an autobiographical way. I didn't know it until now, but a book I have, Endless Vow, is such a work by Soen Nakagawa Roshi.

The haiku I'm leaving here were written either without or very little effort, fairly spontaneously.  They were relevant to my life at the time I wrote them either in general or in the moment.  Usually thoughts I didn't want to forget. While I'm still against, twitter, I guess that the haiku I write are probably what I'd post if I did.

Some of them may seem a little weird, with odd personal references.  For the time being, I'll leave them unexplained.

Please enjoy.

Winter 2009-10
the cardinal in the tree
he has no hands
chirp, chirp


broken glass
life is suffereing
there is no river


thoughts just passing through
next stop:
the page


like a restless baby
until the mind is quiet
i cannot sleep


the little jerks have simple needs
no worries or delusions
tick-tock, tick-tock


little things easier everyday
when will size
cease to matter?


a simple difficult intention
i do what i can
or do i?


disappointment
aversion is today's vice
it must dissolve


the terrible wizard
behind the curtain
very helpful


the nail on the head
fear of surrendering freedom
next step?


no little birdies yet
too early or too cold
waffle time


dawn breaks
but not the silence
echoes of last years locusts


write about?
...
let it be


the first bird calls
thawing the mind
it's time


another day
the ocean's waves don't stop
neither should i


a tough year
riding the ox
i greet the tiger


sitting as infinite buddhas
time and space fall away
it's still just a day dream


moon buddha
infinite fingers pointing
cut them all off


a new life
new challenges
purrrr..


Spring 2010
spring arrives
the wee beastie
leaves her marks


the fish are kind today
saving me the trouble of unhooking them
how selfish?

Summer 2010
serving others
straightest path
to serving self

resisting effort
cloudy days are cloudy
clear days are clear

on the road
endless journey
watch the scenery

work done
enjoyable visit
ready to return

before, i studied maps
having begun the journey
now i walk the path


Fall 2010
the mind, sleepless baby
deaf to my lullaby
singing louder won't help

this is now, all that exists
without hesitation
the universe unfolds

momentum
potential
mu!

read this line
now this one
they can't be reread

Winter 2010-11
echoes of forgotten lessons
like drops of nectar upstream
unperceived, yet there


Summer 2011
friends with the monkeys
will they still spook the ox?
let's see what happens


one hand claps
is that the ox?
then what have i been taming?

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