When I began on this journey in 2002 I started by writing and publishing haiku;
quiet water’s edge / scent of honeysuckle / and shit
In English, Modern Haiku Volume 34.1 2003, from Australia, Stylus Poetry Online Journal 2003, from Romania, Hermitage Volume III 2006, and from France, https://haicourtoujours.wordpress.com, 2015
I was re-introduced to haiku by my sister through a book of translations of masters in english by Robert Hass. The translations were written in contemporary style, without attention to the syllable-counting form generations of school children know as 5-7-5.
Haiku usually include a kigo or season word. Sometimes it is obvious, but often it is in the form of an implied reference or symbolized by a word or image. Contemporary haiku poets also embrace the caesura; a hyphenated separation of two images or ideas, which together conceptually form a third.
bedsprings in the weeds–– / scent of sweet spring leaves
Modern Haiku Vol 34.2 2003
As a visual artist coming to haiku, I was as interested in how the poem appeared as it was read. I admired that others were publishing haiku in two lines, and even one-line forms in contemporary, scholarly journals. I also found myself drawn to the metaphoric, multi-layered resonance of stories captured in a moment, frequently revealed as images;
hard winter rain–– / with every drip / the heirloom bowl rings
Hermitage A Haiku Journal Volume II 2005
In midlife I had at last connected with a poetry that celebrated how I had always experienced the world– in moments of insight that marked me deeply, that I had possessed no words for before.
Link to YouTube Video: “The Season Suite” 14:17 minutes
