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Two Fall Haiku (or Requiem for Summer)

9to5poet — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 13:03:00 +0000

Fall has already arrived in Minnesota with a loud cold *snap*. I woke this morning to frost on the neighbor’s rooftops and a brisk chill in our building’s hallways. With the season’s early change, I’ve been writing (and reciting) these two haiku beneath my breath for the past two days.

This morning, I decided to take a quick walk and take some pictures to accompany them. I wore flip flops and my toes got so cold I had to run back inside. I miss summer already.

Becoming Dormant

Flowers don’t sour
at summer’s end, they reveal
their brittle brown husks.

* * *

Awakened

Haze evaporates
to crystalline blue skies. Clear
light breaks through thick clouds.

* * *
To see more pictures taken on this morning’s inspiration walk, go to my flickr site!

#12 -- Sidewalk Garden

9to5poet — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 12:37:00 +0000

For the past couple of days, I’ve been posting haiku that are inspired by a recent walk I took in my neighborhood with my digital camera. I live about 4 blocks from downtown Minneapolis, so most of my neighborhood is comprised of apartment buildings and stores. However, in a hill above my house there are some really lovely city houses with gardens. This is where I took the majority of my pictures.

This has also helped me to get a jump start on my 100 Haiku project, because it had been pretty stalled. I’ve been trying to write 100 urban inspired haiku, with a focus on the seasons, as is traditional with haiku. However, it seemed like winter was a more evocative season for the city, until I found these flowers. Click on the 100 Haiku label to read the others. Enjoy!

Sidewalk Garden

In concrete confines,
a manufactured chorus,
voices singing spring.

#9 Freeway Overpass

9to5poet — Thu, 31 May 2007 12:40:00 +0000

I was having a bit of difficulty with this week’s Poetry Thursday
prompt of “rivers.” Even though we passed many rivers in Iowa this weekend, I just didn’t feel a connection to the image. Then, this morning on my walk in my neighborhood, I watched the freeway full of commuters and realized that there are many different types of rivers.

Freeway Overpass

I cross the one-way
river, crowded with cars, stalled
as I am today.

#5 -- Seeking Solace at a Stoplight

9to5poet — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 00:24:00 +0000

I’ve been having this obsession about the way the sky looks, lately. I can always tell how cold it is by the way the sky looks in the morning or coming home from work. The beauty of winter is that almost every day the sky looks different. So, almost every day, a new image occurs to me.

Seeking Solace at a Stoplight

Silhouette of bare

tree limbs, grasping the silver

sky. Hold me, they say.

#3 -- Our First Storm of the Season

9to5poet — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 01:08:00 +0000

This morning, when I woke up, we had finally been hit with snow. We’re down 30 inches this season, which is difficult on us sadomasochistic Minnesotans. Even though I knew it would be a traffic nightmare to get to work, there was something that was so peaceful and unexpected about waking up to a street, glowing blue-white with snow.

I wrote this while I was stuck in traffic on the way to work, on a small notepad that a friend of mine bought for me in Japan. Very dangerous, but in this case, necessary before the haiku flitted away.

Our First Storm of the Season

When we woke today,
streets were swathed in snow, erased.
Everything has changed.

#2 -- On the Interstate Commute

9to5poet — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 04:24:00 +0000

Winter finally arrived in Minnesota. This weekend, it’s supposed to be 15 below, before the windchill. As our garage door opened this morning, I could see heat waves dancing on my windshield, over the boundary between inside and outside.

I don’t know why I choose to live here, when it gets this dangerously cold.

On the Interstate Commute

This biting winter

morning, white exhaust plumes trail

cars clogging black roads.