photo:
Pat Brown
I've
been reading and writing haiku of one form or another for
about fifty years now, enjoying the classic and the modern versions.
In fact, my latest book, a penny in the grass issued in late
February by Ekstasis Editions (Victoria, BC), is a collection of 170
ku from the mid-1960s on. Here are some others—three fairly
straight forward pieces ("counting" "the heron"
"these white leaves") along with a couple of two-liners
("bull-rushes" and "some spaces"), a riff on a
Japanese original (Basho's "hana no kuma," one of his cherry
blossom haiku), and my own little resurrection riff, the "phoenix"
tanka.
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©
Allan Brown
counting
the last of these dew drops—
the early sun
the heron—
the different green
of trees & reeds
these white leaves
against the window pane—
rising wind
bull-rushes leaning
out of the crowded ditch
some spaces still between
the trees & the sky
carefully counting
all of these blossoms—
counting again
[after Basho]
a phoenix?
OK, but
does it have to leave
its ashes
in my garden?
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