Thursday, February 16, 2017

NaHaiWriMo contributions

The following are my contributions to NaHaiWriMo this year. After the first - which introduced the subject of news - I decided to continue by giving vent to my reactions to current events, while also responding to the prompts. One of the reasons I don't usually look for inspiration from current events is that the resulting work can lose meaning when taken out of the context of that news. However, looking back over these now I find that some deal with specifics, such as refugees, that are timeless as well as contemporary, and most could be about any experience of being in a dysfunctional relationship.

reading again
his last haiku -
breaking news

refugees
left with nothing
but their lives

alpha male
praises himself and pouts
to camera

sleight of hand
our deception is required
for your security

the beckoning light
swallowed up by toxic fog
lies about lies

wind-chill
the crack of light around
a closing door

the ominous mood
of a half-remembered dream
fast moving clouds

a book opened
at a labyrinth mandala
winter retreat

taking a break
from the news about news
Spiegel im Spiegel

wiped from the sky
with the stroke of a pen
the sun and stars

kicking up dirt
he says he's the only one
who'll keep us clean

the worst - pretending it can't happen

icy blast
a small voice whispering
this is not normal

a way of speaking
that says much more
than words

backing away
from the angry man's smile -
a child

morning stillness
sunshine
in the winter garden

how long until he
causes irreparable damage?
haze about the moon

a bumblebee drones
from flower to flower
slow news day

even among
the lies and deception
cherry blossom

Plane trees
as if there'd never been
a storm

Presidents' Day
falling silent in remembrance
of the truth

the tattered edge
of a dry leaf in the wind
restless nights

sleep deprived
the world becomes ever more
nightmarish

the urge to hide
until it's over -
winter storm

that thing he
doesn't want to hear mentioned
violent squalls

winter's end
things that were ours
now yours or mine

spring greening
the stone Buddha's smile
remains unchanged

without palaver
the quiet glory
of spring sunrise


Saturday, February 11, 2017

NaHaiWriMo

I'm doing NaHaiWriMo again this year and Michael Dylan Welch has come up with an unusual set of prompts. I've made things more difficult for myself by deciding to experiment with writing what I'm calling haiku from a place of social engagement. I've been reading about the history of haiku and tanka and the phases these forms have gone through, including some where they have been overtly political or more generally reflecting contemporary social conditions. Shasei, the familiar 'nature sketch from life in the moment' is not the only possible way to write haiku although it has become the predominant style in English language haiku. There are two reasons why I decided to do this, one is that I feel I've got into a rut in my writing and I'd like to broaden the range and scope of it, the other is that the spirit of the times seems to be weighing rather more heavily recently than it has for some time and to ignore that entirely would feel like self-censorship.

I will post the set here at the end of the month.