ProetryPlace Blog 61: one haibun and a few haiku
haibun: Counted in Good Company
On those morning walks when I am not concentrating on the content of my iPod playing in my earbuds, I am usually absorbed with poetic or prosaic compositions. At times, poetic inspiration overcomes and usurps my focus on other thoughts, demanding my immediate attention. In the case of haiku, I must simultaneously determine if the words fit the form.
counting syllables
on fingertips, too bad
I don’t have seven
Poet laureate Billy Collins, in his introduction to “Haiku in English,” describes composing haiku when walking his dog. “While the dog sniffed the ground, I counted syllables on my fingers. While she read the recent canine news, I tried to fit some little insight into a seventeen syllable box.”
In the time of Matsuo Basho, most renowned of seventeenth century Japanese haikueteers, haiku were a traditional poetic greeting composed by a guest when visiting the home of his host. The host then replied with another verse, and the exchange continued with additional haiku perhaps contributed by others present at the gathering. The third and subsequent verses were, thus, the most spontaneous in response to the previous two. Yet the opening poem was the most valued. Often the visiting poet transcribed his oral poetic greeting onto paper as a gift to the host.
One might envision the guest poet’s preoccupation with formulating his greeting as he approached the home of his host on foot.
one imagines Basho
approaching tonight’s hostel
counting syllables
haiku:
(This small collection of unrelated, random thought came to mind today, image evocations based in realities of the here and now, many yesterdays ago, or purely imaginative fabrication. Perhaps you can distinguish which are which.)
my neighbor
doesn’t know I steal a
glimpse of his garden
sorority girl
pledging fidelity
drinking warm beer
anxious for news
the mail driver waves
I smile in return
lonely castle
Jesus lives with Dad and Mom
moat full of sinners
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