haiku retrospective xciv

candlestick park --
the witch wind blew the giants
downtown

25 April 2000


noon feeding flight
the finches gather more seed
their feathers unpreened

25 April 2000



spotlight ~
filtered sunlight
on the redwood suckers

26 April 2000

haiku retrospective xciii -- crow come follow me home

Some haiku just won't let you go.

Many years ago, I saw a very ominous blackbird hunkered down on a wrought iron fence. It had just been raining hard, but was now sunny, and the fence was covered with dazzling backlit raindrops.

I tried several times to make a go of this haiku, but it just wouldn't do it. Somehow, the image was too full, too intense to be distilled down into the form of haiku. People suggested to me that there was more there than a haiku could hold, and so I reluctantly let it go.

It held on, however, and this version whispered itself to me last night:

hunchbacked crow --
sunlit raindrops hang
from the wrought iron fence

Here, for comparison, are the earlier attempts:

backlit raindrops
on the black iron fence
blackbird fluffs her feathers

13 April 2000

pearly raindrops
on the wrought iron fence
a blackbird fluffs her feathers

14 April 2000

raindrops on the fence
a blackbird hunches
feathers fluffed

18 April 2000

haiku retrospective xcii

blinking back tears
sunlit raindrops on
the swaying redwood frond

17 April 2000


wind-blown sunshine ~
a spring breeze rearranges shadows
in the oak tree

17 April 2000


haiku ~
attentive to this moment
i smile

20 April 2000

haiku retrospective xci

spring shower
his towel slides down
to his hip

14 April 2000


second nature ~
avoiding the potholes
that were fixed yesterday

15 April 2000


spring has sprung ~
the old armchair
sagging

15 April 2000

haiku retrospective xc

cloudburst ~
an apple tree rains petals
on the asphalt

tree burst ~
raindrops knock the petals
off the apple tree

13 April 2000

haiku retrospective lxxxix

blustery spring day ~
the children's quarrels
lost among the gusts

10 April 2000


raindrops on the pine needles
three swallows flutter by

13 April 2000


backlit raindrops
on the black iron fence
blackbird fluffs her feathers

13 April 2000

haiku retrospective lxxxviii

splashes of cream ~
dogwood in bloom
along the bend in the highway

9 April 2000

Pacific dogwood (Cornus nuttallii) has large cream-colored bracts. It's not pink.


scurrying mouse
the barn door squeaks

10 April 2000


crunching almonds ~
biting through the veined husk
to get to the meat

10 April 2000