31 January 2019 (prayer flags)

frozen in place

string of prayer flags

blessing the icicles

30 January 2019 (egrets)

NB: Haiku are not supposed to have titles; a title is seen as a “fourth line,” an over-explanatory crutch. My “titles” have usually been a word or two as a reference for me to find a particular haiku again when I scroll through a month’s worth of posts. Even including that much, though, has bothered me, because I didn’t want them to be thought of or read as titles. So for now, I’m only going to “title” my haiku with the date. I’ll probably keep it up until the day I spend an hour searching for a specific haiku...

Today’s haiku is a variation of a response I made to some woodblock print images that I posted today as a prompt for my Virtual Haiku Workshop group on Facebook (if you’re on FB and interested, please send a request to join us). 

Egrets in Snow (1927) by O’Hara Shoson (Koson) 

white magic

snow disappearing

on the heron's back

29 January 2019 (power outage)

power outage

the purring motor

of the cat

January 28: Shell

snail shell

in an old coat pocket

what we cling to

January 27: Nuthatch

head down

nuthatch scrolling birch bark

fine print

January 26: Cold

thin-skinned

between me and the cold

these meager walls

January 25: Bird bath

so ordinary

finches crowd a bird bath

so wonderful

January 24: Rain

January rain

river flowing one way

trees another

January 23: Rice

Thai night out

big bowl of white rice 

full moon waiting

January 22: Leaf

moment of panic

skittering across snow

an oak leaf

January 21: Cold

teeth-chattering cold

staccato of the nuthatch

pecking suet