#36

Wrote this in my Geology class today. New science words I learn always end up in poems.

#36

my low albedo:

light spikes into me and stays,

turning my heart black.

#35

the moon is so big

you can see its eyelid, &

cheshire cat smile.

#34

dead leaves yet on trees:

dry carapaces to shed...

winter's really here.

I have been slacking lately, sorry.

#33

leaves made of sunlight,

bright yellow for this warm day

before the snow comes.

#32

a rain starts gently,
so soft only puddles know
and ripple assent.

Today commemorates the one month anniversary of this blog, yay! I've been pretty good about posting; I should have 31 now if posting consistently every day, and this is #32, as you can see, so... yay! I'm going to continue the project at least for another month. I think I'm learning a lot from it as well as having fun, so we'll see where it takes me!

#30 & #31

#30

the fly in my room

beats against the bare light bulb:

quicker winter death.

#31

girl in red sweater

stands on rock in swift river,

at home in the flow.

#29

This is a cheater one, because I actually wrote it yesterday but didn't post it because I wrote a second better one... but I am getting so busy! so I will post it now. Aaaaggghhhh... My brain may just explode one of these days. Watch out.

#29

single leaf on ground

discarded, dappled with dew—

i step around it.

#28

pond is like steamed milk,
the day's heat rising to mist,
under a full moon.

#27

awake in the dark

to the body dancing to

itself— primal sway.

#26

moon a white penny,

showing rainbows in the clouds...

this dark is all light.

#25

I managed to only write 2/3 of one for yesterday... the term is heating up, agh! And don't mean in reference to temperature, because that is going down. I am grateful for my haikus to remind me to take advantage of those small moments of Zen. (And I'll need all the Zen I can get to make it through the week!) Anyway, here is today's:

#25

my heart swoons for you—

can you see it on the floor?

step lightly, would you?

#22, #23 & #24

We just had our "Long Weekend" (more accurately "Fall Hesitation"), so I was not posting on this every day as I should've been. Here are few I did write over the break:

#22

clouds part to half moon

rain stops washing the windows

blue appears again

#23

shoulders together

without a word on the train—

stillness in the buzz.

#24

hills of calm fire:

new every time i see them,

making up this land.

#20 & #21

A couple more for today:

#20

transitioning geese

in between winter and fall

take their Vs southward

#21

this pond like an eye

sees and sings the sky and moon.

i crouch, a still beast.

#19

airplane trailing white
can't see these reluctant leaves
against this blue sky

#18

curl of orange moon:

a leaf hung low in the sky.

a glimpse... then hidden.

#16 & #17

Didn't post yesterday, so here are two for today:

#16

although i'm indoors,

little birds chirp past my ears.

i turn— only light.

#17

passed her on the brick,
my doppel-ganger in name.
don't know her at all.

#15

suddenly, a tree

with leaves of inner fire...

summer's green seems dull.

#14

This is last night's:

tears grow in the dark,

smashed sand dollars dust the floor—

i wish sleep would come.

#13

leaves whirl in the wind:

the gasping voice of autumn

singing down sunshine.

#12

cup of darjeeling,

rain stopped, walls silent. time to

start the day for me.

#11

love letters you kept,
unpacked 'til now. in my hand—
who was she? me, me.

#10

raindrops in my hand

a rainbow across red hills

autumn comes, colored

#9

sunset clouds on pond

silent geese waiting for flight

tomorrow pass on

#7 & #8

Yesterday gets two:

#7

goodbye future friends...

in blooming bubble of joy

i walk away, whole

#8

you all make me go

"when i was a young warthog"

and recall old joy

#6

my mind wandering,

crawling under desk to hide

and stay a while.

#5

i'm transfixed by leaves

—gust of yellow-adorned wind—

dancing, floating down.

#4

final summer days
fade in a burst of birds, sun,
as the trees redden.

#3

handful of pure reds...

on porch I bite apple flesh,

falling into fall.

#1 & #2 (+ an introduction)

Hello! Welcome to rare words:brave world, a blog wherein I will post the haiku that I write each day and whatever else I may feel like posting. Also, sometimes images to go with the poems, because pictures are exciting. I have decided to begin this project quite randomly, mostly because I am doing some research on Japan for my novel, and have begun to read seriously a lot of haiku poems. I'd forgotten how fun they are to read and write... thus this blog was born.

Haiku are an expression of the concept known as mono no aware, sometimes translated to mean "the ahh-ness of being." It is a recognition of both the beauty and sadness of the ephemerality of life. Since haiku are so short, only seventeen syllables long, each one is only enough to catch an impression, an image, a revelation, before floating away. Cherry blossoms (in Japanese, sakura) were a common subject for haiku since their lives too are so brief yet so beautiful, a symbol, especially in the Buddhist tradition, of our own mortality within the scope of lives lived and yet to be lived. We are all but small pieces, and these are but some more small, evanescent pieces of life. So that's what's up with the picture at the top of the page—which is a picture I took myself! a few springs ago on the campus of the rather odd New England college I go to.

Alright! Here is the haiku for yesterday as well as the one for today. They're probably bad... but hey, hopefully I'll get better as I go along, right?

#1

magic is the heart

that beats knowing no power

but the giving out

#2

first bite of my lunch

walking wet road to warm room

muscles relax—ah

That's all for now! Check back tomorrow... and the day after... and the day after... ^_^

P.S. The title of this blog comes from a line spoken by Falstaff in Shakespeare's Henry IV Part 1, one of the best plays ever.