Haiku Musings

I don't claim to be an expert on haiku but I like the challenge of writing them. This week I wrote one and published it in my Writelink blog.  A comment there sent me scurrying to research some Japanese words associated with this poetic form.

I found that sentori means a moment of oneness, giving us the idea of a haiku capturing a single moment. This reminds me of my first ever attempt at the form, many years ago when I first learnt of it from my English lecturer at college.

The moonlight shivers

as the breeze stirs the water

on a warm June night.

I wrote that one from a memory of gazing into the water as I walked home alone along the Thames towpath after a conert of blissful music at Kingston Parish Church. This next one was inspired while I was on holiday in Luxor, Egypt, in 2009.

Tiny little bird
with yellow breast, black on top,
turquoise shoulder flash.

Then back at home again:

Wondrous white tulips,
delicate pointed petals
reaching for the sky.

The Japanese word jinji means the human condition and most of the ancient jinji haiku in Japan were satirical and funny.

I think my latest one is the closest I get to that.

They said it would rain,
yet the sun baked us pink, as
we walked in raincoats.