When I was in high school, I remember my English teacher…sophomore year, maybe?...giving us an assignment to write haiku. I hated that assignment, with a passion unlike any other at that point in my life. How could anyone write a whole poem in just seventeen syllables? I struggled over every word, and I don’t recall ever putting one on the page.
I get it now.
Turns out that my instinct was right about the limitation imposed by the fixed number of syllables. The structure isn’t as important as these three things:
- the literal meaning is pleasing
- there is a deeper meaning
- it offers the reader a moment of enlightenment
Haiku are about living in the moment.
With this realization, I bought one of those blank, lined, hardback journals. Looking at it now, I remember the moment when I created that first poem; it was in the car, immediately after I left the book store.
Black coffee
Sweetly steaming perfect cup –
Full of life
I’m not sure that meets all three of the elements I listed, but there it is.
There is humor in some of what I’ve written:
cobweb gathers dust
is it spider or I who
needs to clean the house?
Eyelids droop. There’s a
curious euphoria
in being this tired
And melancholy…
Moonbeam alights on
wall too thin for privacy
What is she watching?
There are those which capture how I felt when first in love.
she owns the mirror
black frilled femininity
twirls my breath away
Standing by her car
her embrace is a surprise
I feel unworthy of
We touch. I wonder
where I end and you begin;
Fingers interlaced.
Softly sweet, your glance
at me sideways makes me blush;
When can I kiss you?
unexpectedly
she sings. it is a moment
of pure joy for me
…and a very few that speak of that marvelous time when love is bright and strong and real:
stretched high on tip toe
only moonlight on your skin
you are breathtaking
closed eyes, I trace
slow circles on flawless skin
you rise to my touch
you moan, back arching
I want to kiss all of you
but where do I start?
I have seen you when
barely awake, yawning, shy,
you are most lovely
I’m getting back to my writing. I took out Spitfire tonight, read through what I have of that first chapter, added a few paragraphs, some dialogue.
It felt good.
5 comments:
Oh why do I blog
For those friends I'll never meet
What joy they can bring
WOW. Thank you for sharing these - I know it takes a lot to share something so personal. I did not like haiku assignments either. I think they are something you have to appreciate with time. Unfortunately, so many things in school are like that - we haven't lived long enough at that point to grasp the significance or relevance of what we're learning. But hopefully it comes back to us later, as it has with you.
Speaking of writing: a good tip I read, and use, is when you're feeling stymied, tell yourself "Just one more sentence." And do it. It works!
I love haiku. I think its form is perfect, pure and simple. And yours are amazing. Thank you.
thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing Kurt - touching, thought-inducing, amazing.
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