#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.