Twenty years ago, lets meet for coffee messages became playful, humorous, hastily crafted short-form poems, leading me where I needed to be: haiku. An on-again, off-again love affair had begun—a favorite reading form ever since.

coffee emails bloom—
playful words become poems,
haiku finds my heart

Winter, perhaps due to its reflective nature, compels me to read haiku. Haiku has taught me to focus on that single snowflake falling to earth, instead of seeing a blur of flakes. It has taught me to hear the turn signal clicking behind the louder volume of the radio; the present moment is filled with so much information that our brains have been designed to ignore so much of reality, especially the daily things, the minor things…the important things. Through haiku, I’ve developed my ability to be a part of the present moment more fully and capably than I would be able to without haiku. Haiku envelops my soul no matter the season, but wintertime begs for haiku.

winter’s evening—
haiku in hand, the silence
settles into me.

Where to keep haiku? In your car’s glovebox. In less time than blowing your nose, you can get an entire scene, a story, a snippet of truth, a glimpse of nature in threes. I’ve been spotted many a time reading haiku in waiting rooms and random places, at times where I have a few minutes with nothing to do (this habit began before smartphones, just sayin’). Sometimes I even arrive early in anticipation of the haiku moment.

tiny book in hand,
a flicker of nature in threes —
waiting room solace.

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A few haiku selections with notes

A haiku-poet-biography, the memorable Baisao was a buddhist monk that left temple life late in his years, becoming a well known tea seller in Kyoto, who loved setting up his traveling teapot in various parts of the city; Baisao basically just sells [a small amount of] tea and writes poetry, and has no qualms taking your teacup from you and moving on when he is ready; Baisao cares not if you aren’t done with it. A well researched book and fascinating read, this book is about the city of Kyoto, random residents, wisdom, poetry, and tea.

The old Tea Seller: Baisao: life and zen poetry in 18th century Kyoto https://search.worldcat.org/cs/title/182737860

The death poem. In Japan, it became a tradition for poets to compose a final haiku when nearing death. These death poems vary widely in theme, ranging from humorous and reflective to deeply serious or even macabre.

Japanese Death Poems: https://search.worldcat.org/en/title/14994467

The Poetry of Zen. After several decades, this book still lives in my glovebox, traded between vehicles every time I downgrade (yes, there is at least one coffee stain on it). The translator, Sam Hamill, has many translated works of poetry from Japanese to English. I have not read one of their publications that wasn’t a pleasure.

The Poetry of Zen: https://search.worldcat.org/en/title/77257608

Narrow Road to the Interior by Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694), is a classic read in its genre and has influenced poetry for hundreds of years. It is about a long walking journey that M. Bashō took in the 1600s. A travelogue, written in the haibun style, which includes haiku as a component of it. Matsuo Bashō is credited with bringing haiku into its stand-alone form.

Narrow Road to the Interior: https://search.worldcat.org/en/title/1043219316

 

Further Haiku Explorations

1. If essays are behind paywalls, use the Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service at your favorite library to get access. ↩︎
2. “Hisajo was one of the best haiku poets of modern times. Takahama Kyoshi (1874-1959), the giant of the modern haiku world and editor of Hototogisu (Cuckoo), the single most important haiku magazine, praised Hisajo’s talent. Later, however, he expelled her from membership in Hototogisu and destroyed her career as a poet. Sadly, Hisajo could not free herself from the conservative notion of how a dutiful disciple should behave. Instead of establishing herself outside of Kyoshi’s sphere, she continually tried to regain her master’s approval. In the end, years of frustration, of not being able to publish or to compose haiku because of Kyoshi’s rejection, destroyed her mind and body. Hisajo was victimized by the male-dominated pyramidal structure of the arts in Japan.” (Hirota, A. 2009) ↩︎
3. I have been a “bad” librarian, but hey, its my blog not collection development so whatever… that being said, I have actively been avoiding adding Richard Wright to this bibliovignette. I have no idea why people like his haiku. I’ve read a collection of his haiku before, and I just can’t at all appreciate how he writes them; in fact I find it quite annoying. That being said, he seems to be liked by many, so I finally caved and decided to include this essay about his work. ↩︎