Haiku Moments - I

Last year, my friend Daniela and I participated in a "renku" - a string of haiku composed by each of us alternately in a sort of response to the one which went before. We used Twitter as the interface and ended all of our tweets with the hash tag #renku in an attempt to 'file' them in sequence.

We were writing from two very different geographical locations: she, from somewhere just south of the Canadian border, and I, from New York City. Our interfaces with nature and season were likewise considerably different. 

The Haiku form leans heavily on specificity of place, season, and simple observations as an expression of the 'haiku moment' - some sublime experience which the poet then attempts to encapsulate within three lines and seventeen syllables.

We had decided to go eighteen rounds, which we did over the course of nine months. Because each haiku in the chain feeds off the previous one, presenting them in pairs is not necessarily the most meaningful way to share them, so here are the first three:


 #1 D (3.30.2011)

Light snow falls

on the coffin along with dirt—

on the sod, a robin hops…

#1 L (3.31.2011)

Fallen branches  

some with buds  

snap underfoot.

 #2 D (4.4.2011)

A red sunrise—

Coffee sweet with birdsong—

And snow, again…

Photo credit :Ruled by Neptune