In the midst of my doctoral courses and research I find I need time to switch codes completely. That is, I need another mode of expression beyond academic prose, as I prune and parse and try to make it clear.
I was hoping to afford the haiku writing course with Clark Strand via Tricycle magazine; I learned a great deal from his free preview. I read Basho's The Narrow Road to the Deep North... , and Bruce Ross's How to Haiku, which introduced me to haiga, which are haiku with little sketched pictures alongside them to accompany and capture the feeling of the poems. I want to try that. However, my seventeen-syllable efforts so far have lacked the humorous twist he finds essential to the true haiku. I thought it had to be not only seasonal or episodic but a gentle surprise at the end rather than a twist. I also adde Buddhist elements as I make my way through by Buddhist Philosophy in my directed reading this semester.
Here are my recent efforts:
(1)
My coffee cup sits
Empty of all but shadow
Filled with my next sip.
(2) (for Thây)
Clock ticks; loving heart.
Teachers teach only so long
Restless on shelf a book falls.
(3)
On the path a mouse
Tiny crouching on the edge
Child laughs; leaps away
(4)
Corn is high they say
Sun is low late afternoon
Taste and see- that's it.
(5)
Right hand rests on cat
Left hand curls around tea cup
Head and hand wake up and breathe.
