Haiku

Fledgling

My older son went away to university last week. It’s a big transition for us, as well as him. My thoughts are of a bird leaving the nest; and of the cycle of seasons, especially that the spring blossom leads to fruit later and the autumn leaves reveal the buds for next spring. Here’s the haiku that came out of this …

fly well my fledgling

through falling cherry blossom

my autumn your spring

The Call of the Woods

I’ve been neglecting my blog. Just to keep it going, here’s a haiku from a less busy time.

field soaring upwards

and beyond the pathless gate

the beckoning wood

(The photo doesn’t fit the poem – it’s different woods – but, hey, it’s woods.)

I became interested in haiku while on retreat a couple of years ago. I like these disciplined poetic forms, and one of the particular attractions of haiku for me is that it is in the present tense. I am trying to live more in the present tense. The other rules of haiku are: three lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables respectively, no punctuation, no capitals, and no rhyme.

This was one of my first.

clump of hill-crest trees

charcoal black against the sky

the unhurried crow