Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Haiku




I woke up this morning 'under the weather' as they say: stuffed sinuses, runny nose, a bit of a dry cough. The thing is, my cough reminded me of a strange sound I had heard early one summer morning when the smog turned the sky a gray-tan colour and the sun a bloody red. I had to dig up the haiku I wrote then and put aside.

a new smog alert
..........the rising sun is greeted
................................by a coughing crow

Somehow this one fell into an automatic 5-7-5 form. I don't usually write that way; Japanese ideograms are not equal to English syllables. The art in English language haiku is to convey all that needs to be conveyed in as few words as possible, to keep to the spirit of haiku rather than labour under the restrictions of form.

1 comment:

Wilma Seville said...

Hello Sir Jefferson,

Hope you are feeling a little better now with rest and pampering yourself. It is interesting how you were reminded of that summer smog day. I don't remember you ever writing Haiku, it is usually Trevor in the group who does them.

I particularly liked the image of the coughing crow!