So in February of 2021, I commenced my haiku journal. Definitely some of the haiku are more successful than others for a variety of reasons--content, word choice, structure,...my mood. Here, though, I will only post some of the ones better under the influence of serendipity.
I shall include, as well, broad category labels to help focus how the content connects to various subjects that I actually carried all the way through to the written word. Some also have a title to help establish focus and/or I needed more syllables than the haiku format allowed.
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MORNING RUNS
Foot splash and leaf-held
drops buffet the hushed running-
in-rain melody 02/21/2021
Running has become
movement meditation to
still the world's noise 04/27/2021
After the rain, I
run wet roads shiny slick with
silver reflections 06/23/2021
ENVIRONMENT and NATURE
Aquamarine--a
turquoise sea slides into the
boundless cobalt deep 02/24/2021
Hard rain can't dance; its
constant collapse across my
metal roof resounds 02/28/2021
Sunlight, like feathers
dancing on a melody,
roused me from slumber 03/19/2021
On a night, the cool
of tropical winter turned
to summer swelter 03/25/2021
With their flaming sting,
fire ants tattoo my body
with itchy red welts 06/15/2021
Among the lions
and baboons, nature plays out
with pain and pleasure 10/26/2021
A house gecko no
longer serves my view of fine
tropical living 01/30/2022
PERSONAL and INTERIOR MONOLOGUE
Now and then I want
your arms, or your words, to hold
me away from this 02/25/2021
Master of rewrites
in life, in love, and always
in expectations 03/20/2021
MAIKA*
With you, Hawaiian
is a prayer, shaving cream
is "whip", and we laugh 04/01/2021
Dark chocolate can
salvage my perspective and
soothe my stressed spirit 04/07/2021
When one cuddles with
a quilt on the couch and cries
over NCIS 04/14/2021
DAVONA**
A lei--ti leaf and
white orchid--to celebrate
a life and passage 05/09/2021
Karen shares last days
with Davona, and I recall
decades of moments 05/11/2021
What I would do or
want you to do does not play
according to script 05/25/2021
To be "the other"--
one haole in the mass--
grants me perspective 05/30/2021
I like to hope I
am a strong woman; maybe
I am just scary 06/20/2021
"Bijou"--a word I
learn for Scrabble...until I
remember there's you 07/01/2021
If, while traveling,
I die overseas, leave my
exiting abroad 08/09/2021
FLIGHT ATTENDANT'S
INSTRUCTIONS FOR AN EMERGENCY
She ends, "Should I be
incapacitated,
please take me with you." 10/27/2021
A prayer...or a
curse--the energy of thought
and words on the world 11/07/2021
Thus I whispered my
thoughts in shimmers, hoping to
illuminate love 11/14/2021
A baby python
my great nephew names Rosy
Rootbeer Mannion 12/14/2021
NELSON, DESMOND, and ANTOINETTE
A catch in my throat
still rises when I think on
your stories, your words 12/30/2021
THE BIBLE
We eavesdrop on a
text written for another
time and circumstance 01/15/2022
MLK quoted
with hope or in vain and we
should read all his words 01/17/2022
MIKE COSOLA
Birthdays like yours
dwell in memory and haunt all
my thoughts of what if 01/24/2022
POLITICS and CURRENT EVENTS
That former guy showed
democracy droops under
the lust for power 03/02/2021
We conceal our greed
and selfishness in worthy
words: "self-reliance" 03/06/2021
Decisions made, born
from our fears and greed and pride,
create this world now 03/07/2021
How we love, in spite
of anything and all else,
determines the end 03/17/2021
When treasured people
choose disparate voices and
journeys not my own 05/02/2021
One hundred and one
damnations--still too few for
all the counted lies 06/02/2021
What creates fear in
our minds and hearts and why are
we scared differently? 06/09/2021
The contortions we
employ to rationalize
and offset choices 08/16/2021
BODY and PHYSICAL WELL-BEING
Eating six slices--
crisp, crunchy--reminds me why
I can't buy bacon 03/12/2021
My back aches today
so no other body part
can function with grace 03/15/2021
VICKY***
With her dancer's grace,
she leads me to understand
my body's power 03/27/2021
Diminished somewhat
with accumulating years, my
body dances still 04/10/2021
Years elapse between
my eating of hotdogs and
I burp my regrets 06/03/2021
Pilates pushes
me to relearn my body--
what's lost, what's wondrous 06/05/2021
My right hip speaks of
age and weariness of use
and I know my years 01/20/22
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*Maika: a student in a Pre-K classroom in which I occasionally sub
**Davona: my mother-in-law
***Vicky: my Pilates teacher
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By the end of a year of journaling in haiku with only three days missed, I realized that I actually wanted to continue with the daily written word in some fashion. So now I am writing a poem---very loosely speaking, mind you--for each day. How this endeavor continues to unfold remains a mystery!
